UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


MISCELLANIES 


OF 


BY 

ABSALOM  H.  CHAPPELL. 


IN    THREE   PARTS. 


PROEME. 

CHAPTER  I.— THE  OCONEE  WAR. 

CHAPTER  II.— THE  OCONEE  WAR  CONTINUED. 

CHAPTER  III.— ALEXANDER  MCGILL1VRAY. 

CHAPTER  IV.-GEN.  ELIJAH  CLARK. 

CHAPTER  V.— COL.  BENJAMIN  HAWKINS. 


JAMES    K.    MEEGAN, 

ATLANTA,   QA. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

ABSALOM  H.  CHAPPELL, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


TO  T1IE 

HON.  HENRY  R,  HARRIS, 

MEMBER    OF   CONGRESS    FROM    GEORGIA, 

TO    WHOM    THESE    SHEETS    ARE    BEHOLDEN    FOR    SEEING    THE    LIGUT, 

THEY  ARE   INSCRIBED 
1?Y     HIS     KINSMAN    AND     FllIEND, 

THE    AUTHOR. 


174842 


PROEME. 

I  have  gotten  beyond  the  Scriptural  term  of  years  allotted 
to  man  unearth.  I  have  outlived  my  three  score  and  ten. 
I  Jut  although  old  age  is  fully  upon  me,  I  do  not  as  yet  feel  its 
weight.  Deep  in  the  mid  winter  of  life,  I  have  not  as  yet 
felt  its  chill.  I  am  sensible  of  no  decline  of  physical  health 
or  mental  alacrity,  or  warmth  of  heart.  At  no  period  have 
I  enjoyed  more  consciously  that  great  blessing,  a  sound  mind 
in  a  sound  body.  Tn  this  respect  I  sometimes  almost  feel 
entitled  to  lay  claim  to  what  Cicero  lauds  in  his  immortal 
work  De  Scnectute :  Earn  senectutem  qure  fundamentis  ado- 
lescntias  constituta  est : — That  old  aye  which  if,  built  on  the 
foundations  of  youth.  Where  these  are  sound  and  well  laid, 
both  mind  and  body  are  apt  to  bear  up  bravely  under  a 
pretty  heavy  superstructure  of  years,  and  to  acquire  hard- 
ness and  strength,  rather  than  incur  premature  decay  from 
time. 

Whilst,  however,  sustaining  thus  well  the  weight  of  age, 
I  cannot  help  at  the  same  time  feeling  how  near  my  end 
really  is.  To  me  the  horizon  of  life  no  longer  recedes  as  I 
advance.  It  stands  still  and  awaits  me,  and  I  must  soon 
reach  it  and  disappear  beneath  it  from  earthly  view.  But  I 
recoil  not  from  the  near  seen  event.  Clod  has  been  pleased 
to  grant  me  a  length  of  years  beyond  the  common  lot.  It 
saddens  rne  to  think  how  little  good  use  I  have  made  of  them, 
how  much  I  have  been  wanting  to  Him  ray  Maker,  to  my- 
self and  to  my  kind.  Yet  I  have  some  comfort  in  the  re- 
flection, that  though  I  have  fallen  very  short  of  my  duty  and 
of  what  I  might  and  should  have  done  in  my  day  and  gen- 
eration, still  I  have  striven  throughout  life,  and  I  trust  not 


PROEME.  2 

ineffectually,  against  the  downward  tendencies  of  ray  poor 
human  nature  and  have  sought  to  keep  my  soul  erect  and 
aspiring  towards  God  and  Heaven,  and  may  I  not  humbly 
hope  that  when  it  shall  pass  from  earth,  it  will  he  received 
into  that  celestial  home  for  which  it  yearns. 

I  have  reached  a  stage  at  which  the  mind  has  ceased  to 
dwell  over-fondly  on  things  of  the  Present.  Rather  do  I 
find  myself  inclining  more  and  more  to  ruminate  on  my  long, 
multifarious  Past,  and  to  ponder  on  the  short,  precarious 
future  lying  before  me.  Day  by  day  I  feel  .more  strongly 
that  the  little  time  I  have  left  is  quite  tod  little,  in  my  ac- 
tual circumstances,  for  any  important  worldly  effort  or  ef- 
fect, and  every  day  I  long,  with  growing  solicitude  and  mis- 
giving for  somewhat  to  do  or  attempt,  that  may  promise  to 
rescue  my  remaining  days  from  the  stigma  of  an  inane  and 
useless  existence. 

Were  I  in  the  zenith  or  not  too  far  beyond  the  zenith  of 
life,  I  would  disregard  the  ruin  war  has  brought  upon  me 
and  set  to  work  untiringly  to  retrieve  my  fortunes  ;  to 
which  end  I  would  have  but  to  repeat,  to  live  over  again 
my  past  life,  and  upon  the  simple  principle  that  like  causes, 
if  they  have  but  time  to  operate,  will  produce  like  effects,  I 
would  be  sanguine  of  being  able  to  replace  the  lost  fruits  of 
the  past  with  another  ample  store.  P»ut  I  have  neither  time 
nor  strength  left  for  this  repetition, — for  planting  and  culti- 
vating such  another,  or  indeed  any  other  crop.  My  down- 
fall has  come  upon  me  too  late  in  life  to  admit  of  recupera- 
tion, and  there  is  no  alternative  for  me  but  to  sit  and  die 
amidst  its  ruins.  But  still  I  would  not  sit  idle  and  be  ut- 
terly useless  in  the  dear  little  circle  which  confines  me.  I 
would  fain  keep  my  mind  bright  and  elastic  and  worthily 
at  work  in  some  way  to  the  very  last,  if  it  were  but  for  my 
own  sake  ; — and  for  the  sake  of  the  beloved  ones  involved  in 
my  impoverishment  and  to  whom  I  can  no  longer  bequeath 
money  or  money's  worth,  I  would  fain  leave  something  be- 
hind me,  which,  if  I  can  but  be  happy  in  its  delivery,  may 
be,  if  not  a  compensation,  at  least  a  consolation — something 


3  PROEME. 

tliat  will  be  precious  to  their  hearts  when  I  am  gone,  and  I 
pray  Heaven,  solidly  profitable  to  them  for  time  and  for 
eternity. 

Behold  here,  why  and  for  whom  the  impulse  to  wrile  first 
seized  me  !  Aye,  it  was  for  the  loving  hearts  and  partial 
eyes  of  those  to  whom  nothing  that  relates  to  me  or  pro- 
ceeds from  me,  can  ever  be  devoid  of  interest  !  It  was  for 
those  to  whom  I  feel  that  I  am  ever  the  same,  though  for- 
tune is  no  longer  my  friend,  but  has  deserted  me,  and  now 
instead  of  her,  age  and  poverty  are  my  companions,  grimly 
escorting  me  to  an  humble  grave  which  no  marble  will 
adorn  or  iron  inclose.  But  little  to  me,  marble  tomb  or 
iron  inclosure.  For  I  shall  rest  in  thy  bosom,  Georgia  ! — thy 
skies  over  me,  thine  earth  and  air  above  and  around  me,  thy 
sons  and  daughters,  from  generation  to  generation,  side  by 
side  with  me,  and  on  thy  maternal  lap,  beneath  thy  sacred, 
conscious  sod,  I  shall  sleep  proudly,  though  sorrowfully, 
forever  sensible  of  thy  nobleness  and  worth,  forever  mourn- 
ing thy  wrongs  and  ruin.  A  son's  strong  love  for  thee 
unites  with  a  father's  for  his  children  to  impel  my  pen,  and 
it  may  be  I  have  seen  and  known  and  heard  enough,  and 
felt  and  thought  enough  about  thee  and  thine,  to  make  some 
things  that  pen  shall  trace  not  wholly  uninteresting  to  thy 
true  children  too. 


I. 


THE  OCONEE  WAR. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  present  century,  the  Oconee  river, 
three  miles  from  which  I  was  then  born,  in  Hancock  county, 
was  still  the  dividing  line  between  a  powerful,  ever  aggres- 
sive Anglo-American  civilization  on  its  eastern  side,  and  the 
immemorial  Indian  barbarism  which  reigned  as  yet  all  the 
way  from  its  western  bank  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  But 
ray,  then  clear  and  beautiful,  native  stream,  on  whose  bright 
bosom,  with  its  glorious  garniture  of  towering,  overhanging 
trees  in  their  rich  autumnal  attire,  I  first  gazed  enraptured 
as  the  light  canoe  bore  me,  a  child,  swiftly  across  its  placid, 
broad-seeming  wave,  safe  in  a  mother's  encircling  arms  and 
a  father's  skilled  rowing  hands,  was  not  destined  to  retain 
much  longer  the  distinction  of  being  so  important  a  bound- 
ary. The  relentless  tide  of  the  white  man's  insatiable  land- 
greed  was  already  beating  heavily  against  it,  and  soon 
swept  over  it,  and  in  less  than  another  year  the  red  man 
was  pressed  back  another  and  to  him  sad  remove  towards  the 
setting  sun.  For  it  was  the  very  next  spring,  in  the  month 
of  April,  1802,  that  the  Federal  Government  entered  into 
the  famous  compact  with  Georgia,  long  celebrated  in  her 
annals,  known  as  the  Articles  of  Agreement  and  Cession, 
by  which  Georgia  ceded  to  the  United  States  the  whole  of 
her  territory  lying  between  her  present  western  boundary 
and  the  Mississppi  river,  comprising  nearly  all  of  what  now 
constitutes  the  two  great  States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 
In  return  for  which,  besides  a  million  and  a  quarter  to  be 
paid  in  money,  the  United  States  also  stipulated  to  extin- 


6  THE    OCONEE   WAR. 

guish  for  Georgia  the  aboriginal  title  to  all  tte  lands  still 
occupied  by  the  Indians  within  her  thus  reduced  limits. 
And  before  the  end  of  the  year  the  National  Administration, 
heedful  of  the  obligation  it  had  taken  upon  itself,  hastened 
to  take  the  first  step  in  discharging  it,  by  purchasing  of  the 
Muscogee  or  Creek  Nation  the  fertile  and  beautiful  tract  of 
country  spreading  out  west  from  the  Oconee  river  to  the 
Ocmulgee. 

At  this  period,  not  twenty  years  had  yet  elapsed  since 
Georgia  had  gotten  from  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees  the 
whole  region,  of  which  Hancock  was  only  a  very  small  part, 
commencing  far  down  on  the  Altamaha,  and  lying  first  be- 
tween that  great  river  and  the  Ogeechee,  and  then  between 
the  Ogeechee  and  the  Oconee,  all  the  way  up  to  their 
sources,  and  from  thence  across,  between  lines  nearly  paral- 
lel, to  the  Savannah  and  the  Tugalo : — A  region  nearly 
equal  in  extent,  and  more  than  equal  in  value  and  fertility, 
to  all  of  organized  Georgia  as  then  existing  ;  a  fact  strongly 
showing  what  an  important  stride  towards  future  develop- 
ment and  greatness  the  State  made  when  she  eifected  that  en- 
largement of  her  bounds,  and  how  sagacious  our  predecessors 
of  that  day  were  in  seizing  the  opportunity  of  effecting  it, 
which  presented  itself  at  the  triumphant  close  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary war  ;  up  to  which  time  all  this  country  had  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  Georgia  having  previ- 
ously acquired  from  them  no  more  than  a  narrow  strip  along 
the  sea-board  from  the  Savannah  to  the  St.  Mary's,  and 
another  narrow  strip  running  up  between  the  Savannah  and 
the  Ogeechee,  comprehending  all  Wilkes  county  as  origi- 
nally constituted.  Both  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees  had 
sided  and  fought  with  Great  Britain  against  us,  during  the 
Revolutionary  war,  and  having  failed  with  her  and  been 
left  by  her  to  their  fate,  they  necessarily  incurred  the  fate 
of  the  vanquished,  and  Georgia,  as  the  victor,  having  them 
at  her  mercy,  dictated  such  terms  of  peace  as  suited  her, 
and  obtained  the  large  cession  of  lands  above  mentioned. 
But  the  terms  were  too  hard  upon  the  Indians  for  a  sincere 


THE   OCONEE   WAR.  7 

and  solid  peace,  and  it  turned  out,  as  might  have  been  fore- 
seen, to  be  a  hollow  and  unreal  one.  Treaties  of  peace 
were,  indeed,  made,  but  they  brought  no  peace.  They 
only  terminated  one  war  to  sow  the  seeds  and  pave  the  way 
for  another. 

The  Cherokees  being  comparatively  weak  and  un warlike 
and  destitute  of  any  very  able  and  ambitious  leadership 
among  themselves,  the  lands  also  derived  from  them  being 
of  much  less  extent  and  value,  the  trouble  our  ancestors  had 
with  them  never  became  so  very  formidable,  and  was  much 
more  easily  composed. 

Not  so  with  the  Creeks.  They  were  by  far  the  most  nu- 
merous, powerful  and  warlike  of  all  the.  Indian  tribes  in 
North  America,  and  their  name  had  'gotten,  during  the 
Revolutionary  war,  to  strike  terror  around  every  hearth- 
stone in  Georgia.  To  them,  moreover,  had  belonged  the 
lower,  and  the  larger  and  more  valuable  portion  of  our  new 
acquisitions.  Cherishing  still  the  rancors  of  past  hostili- 
ty, chafing  under  what  they  deemed  the  enormous  price 
exacted  for  peace,  and  inspired  by  a  supreme  chief*  of  con- 
summate abilities,  ambition  and  influence,  and  especially 
animated  by  hatred  of  Georgia,  they  utterly  refused  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  cession  which  a  portion  of  their  head  men 
had  made  at  Augusta  in  178*5,  and  resorted  to  arms  against 
it  and  to  resist  our  occupation  of  the  ceded  lands.  In  the 
irregular,  desultory  manner  of  savage  warfare,  they  kept  up 
for  many  years  a  struggle,  frequently  relaxed,  sometimes 
even  intermitted,  yet  always  overhanging  and  threatening 
to  break  out  in  fresh  incursions  and  outrages.  The  Geor- 
gians, nevertheless,  or  Virginians,  as  the  Indians  called 
them,  thronged  in  great  numbers  and  undeterred,  into  the 
contested  territory  and  pitched  their  settlements  wherever 
they  best  liked,  upon  soil  which  they  were  liable  every 
moment  to  have  to  defend  with  their  lives.  They  lived,  of 
course,  in  perpetual  peril,  and  were  compelled  to  be  always 
in  arms  and  on  the  alert.  It  would  not  be  too  strong  to  say 
of  the  infancy  of  this  part  of  the  State  that  it  was  baptised 

•Alexander  McGillivray. 


8  THE   OCONEE   WAR. 

in  the  blood  of  men,  women  and  children.  The  reliance  for 
defence  was  in  part  on  a  very  few  United  States  troops,  gar- 
risoned here  and  there  along  the  Oconee  river,  and  on  vol- 
unteer horsemen  organized  under  State  authority,  in  small 
bands,  regularly  officered,  always  ready  to  take  the  saddle, 
indeed  most  of  the  time  in  it,  and  actively  traversing  the 
country  in  all  directions,  attacking,  repelling,  pursuing, 
intimidating — to  whose  aid  upon  emergency  all  the  fighting 
men  rushed  from  their  houses  and  fields  at  a  moment's 
warning.  All  this,  however,  would  not  have  sufficed  with- 
out-the  help  of  other  means,  and  as  the  best  other  means  in 
their  power,  the  different  settlements  took  a  somewhat  mili- 
tary character,  and  might  indeed  have  been  not  inaptly 
termed  semi-military  colonies.  By  their  own  voluntary 
labor  the  people  of  each  neighborhood,  when  numerous 
enough,  built  what  was  dignified  as  a  fort,  a  strong  wooden 
stockade  or  block-house,  entrenched,  loop-holed,  and  sur- 
mounted with  lookouts  at  the  angles.  Within  this  rude 
extemporised  fortress  ground  enough  was  enclosed  to  allow 
room  for  huts  or  tents  for  the  surrounding  families  when 
they  should  take  refuge  therein — a  thing  which  continually 
occurred  ;  and,  indeed,  it  was  often  the  case,  that  the  Fort 
became  a  permanent  home  for  the  women  and  children, 
while  the  men  spent  their  days*in  scouring  the  country,  and 
tilling,  with  their  slaves,  lands  within  convenient  reach  ;  at 
night  betaking  themselves  to  the  stronghold  for  the  society 
and  protection  of  their  families,  as  well  as  for  their  own  safety. 
Well  do  I  remember  the  large,  level  old  field  in  my  maternal 
grandfather's  plantation,  which  in  my  early  boyhood,  was 
still  noted  as  having  been  the  site  of  one  of  those  forts.  Also 
the  creek  near  by  took  its  name  from  the  Fort,  and  was  and 
is  still  called  Fort  Creek.  My  grand-father,  however,  a 
fresh  emigrant  from  Virginia,  did  not  like  this  mode  of  life 
for  his  wife  and  children,  and  established  them  for  two  years 
to  the  east  of  the  Ogeechee  in  what  was  then  Columbia 
county,  whilst  he  with  his  negroes  cleared  land,  made  crops 
and  faced  the  Indians  in  Hancock,  or  rather  in  what  was 


THE  OCONEE   WAR.  9 

then  Washington  county.  For  in  February,  1784,  the  Leg- 
islature, acting  upon  the  treaties  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
made  at  Augusta  the  year  previous,  passed  a  law  throwing 
open  to  settlers  the  whole  of  the  new  acquired  country  from 
the  Al  tarn  aha  to  the  mountains,  and  forming  it  into  two 
vast  counties,  Washington  and  Franklin,  whose  huge  size 
was  afterwards,  from  time  to  time,  diminished  by  carving 
out  new  counties,  among  them  Hancock.  Thus  Washing- 
ton and  Franklin,  originally  twin,  coterminous  counties, 
became  disparted,  and  now  an  hundred  intervening  miles 
lie  between  them.  But  no  length  of  time  or  width  of  space 
will  ever  dissociate  the  great  and  venerable  names  they  bear. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  OCONEE  WAR  CONTINUED. 

This  rancorous  Indian  broil  lasted  with  many  vicissitudes 
and  various  degrees  of  violence  for  some  dozen  years  before  it 
was  finally  extinguished  by  the  treaty  of  Colraine  in  June, 
1*796.  All  the  while  too  it  was  intimately  complicated  with 
an  obstinate  territorial  quarrel  between  the  United  States 
and  Spain,  growing  out  of  their  conflicting  claims  of  sove- 
reignty to  the  entire  Indian  country  west  of  the  Chattahoo- 
chee :  Spain  claiming  as  her  own  all  the  region  occupied 
by  the  Creeks  and  other  tribes  between  that  river  and  the 
Mississippi,  upon  the  ground  of  having  reconquered  the 
province  of  West  Florida  from  Great  Britain  during  the 
Revolutionary  war, — which  re-conquest,  as  contended  by 
her,  covered  all  that  country  at  least,  if  not  mucli  more. 
From  this  antagonistic  Spanish  claim  sprang  Spanish  tam- 
perings  with  the  Indians  against  us,  the  result  from  which, 
and  from  the  hard,  injurious  treatment  the  Indians  thought 
they  had  received  from  Georgia  by  the  treaty  of  Augusta 


10  THE  OCONEE  WAR. 

and  the  seizure  of  the  Oconee  lands,  was  that  the  Creek 
nation  precipitately,  in  1*784,  transferred  to  Spain  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  United  States  that  allegiance  or  rather  adherence 
that  had  just  dropped  from  the  vanquished  hands  of  Great 
Britain.  Their  Supreme  Chief,  McGillivray,  greatly  in- 
censed hy  said  treaty  of  Augusta  and  the  proceedings  of 
Georgia  thereon,  hastened  to  Pensacola  as  both  sovereign 
and  ambassador,  and  formed  with  the  creatures  of  Spain 
there  what  was  called  a  treaty  of  Alliance  and  Friendship, 
subjecting  his  people  and  country  absolutely  to  the  Spanish 
yoke  and  sceptre.  It  is  impossible  to  peruse  this  document 
without  being  amazed  at  the  excessive  subjugation  it  stipu- 
lates, so  unlike  anything  in  our  Indian  treaties,  and  the  con- 
viction seizes  upon  the  mind  that  a  villainous  fraud  was 
practised  by  the  Spaniards  on  McGillivray  in  the  translation 
of  it  to  him.  For  he  was  a  stranger  at  that  time  to  their 
language,  though  master  both  with  his  tongue  and  pen  of 
ours.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  lie  became  aware  after- 
wards of  the  atrocious  cheat  that  had  been  perpetrated  upon 
him.  But  he  hid  the  disparaging  discovery  in  his  own 
proud,  politic  bosom,  at  the  same  time  silently  ignoring  and 
annulling  by  all  his  action  the  false,  unstipulated  matter 
foisted  by  the  Spaniards  into  the  treaty.*  For  he  was  alto- 
gether too  shrewd  to  make  proclamation  of  his  having  been 
their  dupe  ;  a  thing  which  would  have  damaged  him  deeply 


*  American  State  Papers — Foreign  Affairs — Vol.  I, p.  278. —Where  this  ex- 
traordinary treaty  will  be  found  at  length  signed  by  McGillivray  alone  on  the 
part  of  the  Indians.  In  the  treaty  is  contained  a  statement  that  McGillivray 
was  made  acquainted  with  its  contents  by  "a  literal  and  exact  translation 
which  was  reduced  by  Don  Juan  Joseph  Duforrett,  Captain  of  the  militia  of 
Louisiana  and  Interpreter  of  the  English  Idiorn  for  his  Majesty  in  said  Pro- 
vince." The  existence  of  this  treaty  soon  became  a  fact  well  known,  and  was, 
indeed,  never  intended  to  be  concealed.  That  its  precise  character  and  contents, 
however,  were  kept  secret  for  a  long  time  is  apparent  from  a  diplomatic  letter 
of  our  Commissioners  in  Spain,  Messrs.  Short  and  Carmichael,  addressed  to  the 
Madrid  Government  in  August,  17'J'2,  wherein,  replying  to  a  note  of  the 
Spanish  Minister  bringing  forward  the  pretensions  of  Spain  under  that  treaty, 
they  say  that  its  contents  had  never  been  made  known  to  them,  and  therefore 
they  could  say  nothing  in  respect  to  it. — American  State  Papers — Foreign  Af- 
fairs—  Vol.  1.  page  '2'iG. 


THE   OCONEE   WAR.  11 

with  his  own  people,  besides  forcing  upon  him  a  breach  with 
the  Spaniards  as  the  only  alternative  to  his  own  loss  of 
honor. 

But  although  foul  towards  the  Indians,  both  in  what  it 
contained  and  the  manner  of  its  obtainment,  the  treaty  of 
Pensacola  undoubtedly  had  the  effect  of  attaching  the  Span- 
iards closely  to  them  as  our  enemies:  not  that  they  avowed 
themselves  as  such  and  openly  took  the  field  against  us.  It 
suited  their  ends  better  to  stand  masked  behind  the  Indians, 
and  to  instigate,  sustain  and  exasperate  them  in  their  hos- 
tilities and  depredations.  Hence,  during  the  period  after 
the  Revolutionary  war  that  the  old  Continental  Confedera- 
tion was  still  subsisting  as  the  only  tie  between  the  States, 
Georgia  was  all  the  while  harassed  by  a  huge  two-fold  trou- 
ble pressing  upon  her  conjointly — an  Indian  trouble  and  a 
Spanish — and  so  thoroughly  were  these  troubles  conjoined 
that  it  was  quite  impossible  to  manage  the  nearer  and  more 
immediately  perilous  one,  that  with  the  Indians,  with  any 
success  separately  from  its  Spanish  adjunct,  from  which  it 
mainly  drew  its  mischievous  energies  and  means  of  annoy- 
ance. And  yet  this  latter — the  Spanish  one — though  so 
potent  in  its  effects  against  us,  was  not  only  locally  distant 
and  beyond  the  arm's  reach  of  the  State,  but  was  also  politi- 
cally outside  of  her  jurisdiction,  belonging,  with  the  general 
mass  of  our  foreign  affairs,  exclusively  to  the  authorities  of 
the  Confederation.* 

'Whilst  Georgia  during  the  Confederation  always  exercised  a  jurisdiction  both 
of  war  and  peace  in  Indian  Affairs,  which  was  never  controverted  by  the  United 
States,  yet  she  was  careful  not  to  exefcise  it  in  any  manner  that  might  em- 
barrass the  United  States  in  the  conducting  of  the  great  territorial  dispute  with 
Spain.  Hence,  although  the  Legislature  in  1785,  by  way  of  asserting  the  title 
of  the  State  and  protesting  against  the  adverse  Spanish  claim,  passed  an  act 
creating  the  county  of  Bourbon,  extending  from  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo  down 
the  Mississippi  to  the  31st  parallel,  and  as  far  eastwardly  "as  the  lands  reached 
which  in  that  District  had  been  at  any  time  relinquished  by  the  Indians,"  and 
which  lands  the  Spaniards  were  taking  steps  to  occupy  and  settle,  yet  Georgia 
stopped  short  with  simply  creating  the  county  of  Bourbon  on  her  statute  book, 
taking  no  proceedings  of  any  kind  under  the  law,  and  in  1788  quietly  repealed 

because  she  saw  that  her  attempting  to  carry  it  into  execution  would   be 


12  THE   OCONEE   AVAR. 

It  is  not,  surprising  that  the  State  got  along  poorly  with  a 
task  for  which  she  was  thus  disabled  at  once  by  its  distrac- 
tion and  her  own  want  of  strength.  She  did  her  best,  how- 
ever, confining  herself  to  the  Indian  part  of  it,  while  the 
Confederation,  through  that  eminent  statesman,  John  Jay, 
as  minister  and  secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  worried  to 
quite  as  little  purpose  with  the  Spanish  part. 

Georgia,  in  her  sphere,  exerted  herself  not  only  in  efforts 
of  fighting  and  skirmishing,  but  also  in  a  good  deal  of 
finesse  and  negotiation  with  the  Indians.  Her  first  essay  in 
the  last-mentioned  way,  after  the  opening  of  hostilities,  was 
in  the  year  1785,  and  it  resulted  in  the  treaty  of  Galphinton, 
]  which,  as  to  boundaries  simply,  reiterated  the  treaty  of 
Augusta  with  a  further  cession  of  a  considerable  breadth  of 
land  between  the  Altamaha  and  the  St.  Mary's,  which  went 
by  the  name  of  Talassee  or  Talahassee.*  Within  another 

likely  to  increase  the  difficulties  of  the  United  States  in  their  diplomatic  strife 
with  Spain  touching  that  and  all  the  .other  territory  then  in  dispute  between  the 
two  countries. — For  the  Bourbon  County  Act  and  its  repeal,  see  Wat  kins'  Digest 
of  the  Laws  of  Georgia— -304,  371. 

*  "Tallassee"  is  the  name  applied  to  this  country  by  our  Legislature  in  the 
Act  of  December  28th,  1794.  —  Watkins*  Digest,  5 51 — See  same  Act.  American 
State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  1st,  551,552.  In  various  other  places  in 
the  State  Papers  where  mention  is  made  of  this  country,  it  is  called  Talassee. 
But  Mr.  Jefferson  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress  of  December,  1802,  calls 
it  the  Tallahassee  country.  In  old  Indian  times  of  the  last  century  the  name 
belonged  to  the  largest  and  most  important  of  the  political  Districts  into 
which  the  Creek,  or,  as  it  is  styled  in  the  treaty  of  Pensacola,  the  Tallapouchee 
nation  was  divided.  It  is  the  first  named  District  in  that  treaty,  and  is  men' 
tioned  there  as  consisting  of  four  towns.  It  undoubtedly  embraced  at  that 
time  an  area  much  larger  than  the  Galphinton  cession.  All,  indeed,  of  South 
Eastern  Georgia,  except  the  old  counties  of  Glynn  and  Camden,  and  the  larger 
part,  if  not  the  whole  of  Southern  and  Southwestern  Georgia,  was  compre- 
hended in  it;  much  likewise  of  Middle  Florida— a  fact  recognized  by  the 
Floridians  in  the  name  they  have  bestowed  on  their  capital.  The  Indians  seem 
to  have  been  greatly  attached  as  well  to  the  name  as  to  that  part  of  their 
country  that  bore  it.  Hence,  McGilhvray  christened  his  chief  residence  on  the 
Coosa  "Little  Tallassee,"  and  the  beautiful  spot  at  the  foot  of  the  first  falls  of 
the  Tallapoosa  river  was  called  Tallassee, — a  name  it  bears  to  this  day.  '-Gal. 
phinton"  was  a  famous  old  Indian  trading  post  on  the  Ogeechee  some  dozen 
miles  below  Louisville.  "Shoulderbone:)  is  the  great  creek  of  Hancock  coun- 
ty.— For  the  Treaties,  see  Watkins,  and  Mar  bury  §•  Crawford's  Digests. 


THE    OCONEE    WAR.  13 

year  another  treaty  was  needed,  and  in  1786  that  of  Should- 
erbone  was  made  reaffirming  the  cessions  of  Augusta  and 
Galphinton.  ~  All  three  of  these  treaties  were  transactions  of 
Georgia  alone''  with  the  Indians.  The  United  States  was 
neither  a  party  to  them  nor  had  anything  to  do  with  them, 
and  their  effect  was  rather  to  deepen  and  exasperate  than  to 
extinguish  or  appease  enmity.  The  Indians  charged  that 
they  were  sheer  frauds,  contrived  by  Georgia  with  persons 
of  their  tribe  falsely  pretending  to  have  authority  to  treat. 
After  much  investigation  at  a  subsequent  period  by  Commis- 
sioners of  the  United  States,  a  conclusion  favorable  to  the 
fairness  and  authenticity  of  these  treaties  was  reached.* 
The  main  thing,  undoubtedly,  which  impaired  them  in 
Indian  eyes  was  the  expecting  of  aid  from  Spain  in  resisting 
them,  and  the  belief  that  Georgia  would  be  unable  to  enforce 
them  against  the  combined  Indian  and  Spanish  opposition. 
For  savages,  not  unlike  civilized  people,  are  very  much  in- 
clined, when  under  the  influence  of  strong  passions  or  inte- 
rests, to  trample  on  good  faith  and  the  sanctity  of  compacts, 
unless  deterred  by  the  dread  which  superior  power  on  the 
adverse  side  is  apt  to  inspire.  Hence  hostilities  continued 
to  rage,  not  the  less,  perhaps  even  the  more,  on  account  of 
these  abortive  attempts  at  pacification  ;  and  there  is  no  tell- 
ing what  might  not  have  been  the  disastrous  upshot,  had 
not  the  new  Federal  Constitution  been  adopted,  and  under 
it  a  new  government  started  in  1789  for  our  young  Federal 
Republican  nation,  strong  enough  to  inspire  the  Indians  with 
a  salutary  fear,  and  clothed  with  the  whole  war-making  and 
treaty-making  power;  and  also  with  the  absolute  control 
over  all  Indian  as  well  as  all  foreign  affairs.  By  this  wise 
and  happy  concentration,  all  the  reins  over  the  subject,  as 
well  in  its  Indian  as  its  Spanish  aspect,  were  gathered  into 
one  great,  commanding,  national  grasp,  and  were  from 
thenceforth  handled  in  unison,  and  with  abundant  judgment, 
skill  and  success. 

For  from  the  very  outset  of  his  administration,  Washing- 

*  American  Slate  Papers — Indian  jljfairs,  Vol.  Is/,  616. 


14  THE    OCONEE   AVAR. 

ton,  from  his  lofty  stand  point  at  the  bead  of  the  Goverment, 
and  with  his  large,  well-poised,  well-braced  mind,  long  versed 
in  great,  perilous  and  perplexed  affairs,  surveyed  the  whole 
field,  and  kept  it  clearly  beneath  his  eye.  He  saw  in  all 
their  magnitude  and  complication,  the  difficulties  of  the  case 
with  which  he  had  to  deal,  and  set  about  overcoming  them 
with  characteristic  wisdom,  justice  and  statesmanship.  He 
found  the  negotiations  in  which  the  defunct  jSovernment^of 
the  Confederation  had  been  engaged  with  Spain  in  an  ex- 
ceedingly unpromising  state,  nor  were  the  prospects  in  that 
quarter  much  bettered  during  the  first  years  of  his  own 
governance.  For  Spain  was  at  that  period  still  one  of  the 
proudest,  most  powerful  and  self-sufficient  monarchies  of 
the  world,  and  had  evidently  made  up  her  mind  to  yield 
nothing  and  exact  everything  in  this  dispute  with  a  new- 
born, poor  and  feeble  country.  And  certainly  she  was  not 
far  wrong  in  supposing  the  United  States  were  at  that  time 
in  no  condition  for  taking  strong  measures  against  her,  and 
she  feared  not  to  impinge  upon  the  very  confines  of  inso- 
lence in  some  of  her  diplomatic  passages  with  us. 

Seeing,  therefore,  no  near  or  flattering  prospect  of  getting 
rid  of  the  Indian  war  and  its  numerous  attendant  ills  by 
sapping  the  Spanish  foundation  on  which  it  mainly  stood, 
Washington  proceeded  very  soon  to  address  himself  in  the 
most  direct  and  effectual  manner  to  the  Indians  themselves. 
He  determined  to  try  what  could  be  done  to  dissolve  their 
Spanish  ties  and  bring  them  under  an  American  Protecto- 
rate. To  this  end  he  resorted  to  the  best  and  most  hopeful 
means.  Early  in  1790  he  dispatched  from  New  York,  then 
the  Federal  capital,  a  distinguished  and  singularly  suitable 
man,  well  known  to  him,  Col.  Marinus  Willet,  upon  a  con- 
fidential mission  into  the  Creek  nation,  accredited  to  McGil- 
livray.  Colonel  Willet's  instructions  were  to  prevail  on 
McGillivray  and  the  other  great  Chiefs  to  send  a  delegation, 
headed  by  McGillivray  himself,  to  New  York  to  confer  and 
treat  with  Washington,  face  to  face.  The  mission  was  suc- 
cessful, and  Col.  Willet  returned  to  New  York  accompanied 


THE    OCONEB   WAR.  15 

by  McGillivray  and  his  head  men,  representing  the  more 
hostile  element  of  the  nation.  It  was  undoubtedly  the  most 
important  and  imposing  Indian  embassy  that  ever  visited 
our  Government,  and  they  were  received  and  treated  every 
where  along  the  route  and  in  New  York  with  extraordinary 
distinction  and  attention.  They  remained  a  good  while  in 
that  city.  Many  conferences  and  talks  were  held,  and  the 
result  was  the  treaty  of  New  York,  concluded  on  the  7th  of 
August,  17'JO,  negotiated  by  Gen.  Knox,  Secretary  at  War, 
under  the  immediate  eye  and  direction  of  Washington.  By 
its  stipulations  the  Creeks  accepted  fully  the  protection  of 
the  United  States  to  the  exclusion  of  Spain  and  all  other 
powers,  and  bound  themselves  not  to  enter  into  any  treaty 
or  compact  with  any  of  the  States  or  any  individuals  or  for- 
eign country.  They  also  agreed  to  abide  by  the  Altamaha 
and  Oconee  as  their  dividing  line,  following  the  latter  stream 
along  its  westernmost  branch  to  its  source.  Our  Govern- 
ment, on  its  part,  restored  to  them  the  Tallassee  country,  and 
also  guaranteed  the  same  and  all  their  remaining  lands  to 
them  forever  against  all  the  world.  A  treaty  more  cardinal, 
consequential,  and  even  revolutionary  in  its  character,  could 
hardly  be  imagined.  Upon  it  as  upon  a  hinge,  the  Creek 
nation  swung  around  completely  and  at  once  into 
those  natural  relations  with  the  United  States  which  its  in- 
terests dictated,  but  which  had  been  passionately  rejected 
at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  for  a  Spanish  alliance 
and  subjugation.  It  was  undoubtedly  in  gross  conflict  with 
the  treaty  of  Pensacola,  and  it  could  not  but  have  the  effect 
of  creating  an  early  crisis  of  the  most  decisive  kind  between 
Spain  and  the  United  States,  whilst  it  certainly  involved  the 
Creeks  themselves  in  a  position  not  a  little  embarrassing  be- 
tween those  two  powers. 

It  was  a  compact,  however,  on  the  whole  not  less  wise  and 
well  considered  than  highly  important,  and  having  been 
concluded  and  solemnly  perfected  by  the  signatures  of  Gen. 
Knox  and  twenty-four  great  Chiefs,  and  the  attestation  of 
the  Indian  National  Interpreter  and  several  of  our  own  most 


16  THE    OCONEE   WAR. 

distinguished  men,  the  work  of  the  Creek  delegation  was 
done;  and  now,  loaded  with  presents  and  assurances  of 
friendship,  they  were  ready  witli  their  train  of  attendants  to 
depart  for  their  far  distant  Southern  hunting  grounds.  But 
their  long  and  diversified  ambassadorial  tour  from  the  heart 
of  their  own  country  over  land  to  New  York  through  so 
many  States,  towns  and  cities  was  destined  to  he  strikingly 
contrasted  !>y  the  character  of  the  homeward  journey  that 
was  in  store  for  them,  by  the  monotonous,  though  deeply  im- 
pressive sea  voyage  arranged  for  them  by  Washington  over 
ten  parallels  of  latitude  from  New  York  to  St.  Mary's, — a 
mode  of  returning  they  were  led  to  prefer  by  certain  politic 
ideas  as  well  as  by  somewhat  of  curiosity.  For  they  wished 
for  some  ocular  knowledge  of  that  mighty  ocean  to  which 
McGillivray  had  been  long  attracting  their  thoughts  by  say- 
ing they  ought  to  have  a  free  trading  outlet  to  it  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's, — and  especially  were  they  desirous 
of  seeing  and  knowing  for  themselves  that  oft  commended 
harbor  and  outlet.  Hence,  mainly  their  disposition  to  go 
home  by  water,  for  little  cared  they  for  the  considerations 
of  mere  greater  ease  and  expedition  that  were  held  out  to 
them.  Old  Neptune,  well  pleased,  grew  serene  at  beholding 
them,  and  greeted  with  smiles  that  beamed  over  tbe  ocean  his 
strange  new  visitants — nature's  erect,  still  unsubdued  sons 
and  stoic  lords  of  the  woods.  And  well  might  he  look  gra- 
ciously on  the  novel  and  interesting  array  they  presented  to 
his  view.  For  never  before  or  since,  in  all  his  reign,  has  it 
been  given  him,  nor  may  he  hope  it  will  ever  be  given  him 
again,  to  lift  his  storm-quelling  Trident  aloft  over  his  liquid 
realm  in  propitious  behalf  of  such  another  cargo  of  travel- 
ers on  its  billowy  bosom  as  these  stern,  turbaned,  plaided, 
buskined  heroes  and  kings  of  Ihe  new  world's  yet  unviolated 
wilds,  their  hearts  full  of  homage  to  himself,  and  their 
aspect  filling  with  wonderment  his  Tritons  and  Nereides 
and  all  his  other  subject  "blue  haired"  deities  of  the  deep. 
Arrived  at  St.  Mary's  they  quitted  without  regret  the 
noble  sea  ship,  which  it  was  certain  nevertheless  they 


THE   OCONEE   WAR.  17 

would  always  remember  with  admiring  love  and  honor, 
and,  transferred  to  smaller  craft,  wended  their  way 
slowly  up  the  tortuous  river  to  the  famous  old  frontier 
Indian  trading  post  of  Colraine.  And  now  they  soon 
stood  once  more  on  that  beloved  ancestral  soil  which 
they  had  just  recovered  back  to  their  nation,  large,  level- 
lying  Tallassee,  a  land  of  pine  trees  and  the  cypress, 
dismal  emblem  of  death,  though  itself  so  impervious 
to  decay;  of  the  hardy  perennial  wire-grass,  nutritious  to 
cattle  and  deer  ;  of  ever-green  oaks,  and  the  also  ever-green 
stately  magnolia,  glorious  in  the  middle  and  high  upper  air, 
its  aspiring  branches  and  lofty  top  resplendent  with  grand, 
shining,  aromatic  white  flowers;  aland,  too,  abounding  in 
game  of  the  forest  and  fish  and  wild  fowl  ;  swarming  with 
the  honey  bee  likewise  with  its  generous  stores  of  melliflu- 
ous wealth  wonderously  elaborated  from  millions  of  wood- 
land leaves  and  blossoms ;  and  scarcely  less  alive  with 
wolves,  wild  cats,  bears  and  tigers  ;*  washed  along  its 
Northern  border  by  the  broad,  poetic  Altama,t  swamp- 

*-Tigers"  was  the  name  formerly  given  to  panthers  in  this  part  of  Georgia, 
and  is  still  their  name  in  East  Florida. 

|  "Altama'' is  Goldsmith's  poetic  contraction  for  the  Altamaha,  formed  by 
the  confluence  of  the  Oconee  and  Ocrnulgee.  See  his  beautiful  poem  of  "The  De- 
serted Village"  written  more  than  an  hundred  years  ago,  at  a  time  when  the 
emigration  of  the  virtuous  poor  from  Great  Britain  to  the  young  colony  of 
Georgia  was  at  its  height.  The  tide  of  emigration  had  been  setting,  when  the 
poem  was  written,  very  strongly  to  the  lower  banks  of  the  Altamaha,  and 
among  the  emigrants  there  were  not  a  few  who  ultimately  rose  to  fortune  and 
founded  families  and  left  names  which  are  a  pride  and  honor  to  the  State. 
Here  are  the  fine  lines — which  our  great  river,  and  its  scenery  and  reputation — 
called  forth  in  a  strain  graphic  and  powerful,  though  in  some  respects  exag- 
gerated and  erroneous : 

"Ah,  no  !    To  distant  climes,  a  dreary  scene, 
W lii-re  half  the  convex  world' intrudes  between. 
Through  torrid  tracts  with  fainting  steps  they  go, 
Where  wild  A  llama  murmurs  to  their  woe. 
Far  different  there  from  all  that  charmed  before, 
The  various  terrors  of  that  horrid  shore  : 
Those  blazing  suns  that  dart  a  downward  ray, 
And  fiercely  shed  intolerable  day  ; 
Those  matted  woods  where  birds  forget  to  sing, 
But  silent  bats  in  drowsy  clusters  cling  ; 
Those  pois'nous  fields  with  rank  luxuriance  crown'd, 
Where  the  dark  scorpion  gathers  death  around  ; 
Where  at  each  step  the  stranger  fears  to  wake 


18  THE   OCONEE    WAR. 

en  gloomed  river,  lonety  arid  austere,  recoiling  from  the  sea, 
reluctant  and  sad  to  be  so  far  estranged  alike  in  space,  in 
scenery,  and  in  name  from  all  its  sweet  highland  springs; 
whilst  on  the  other,  its  southern  side,  the  Immaculate  Vir- 
gin Mother's  sacred  stream  laved  it  with  unfailing  waters, 
ever  distilling  from  the  vast  and  secret  Okeef'eenokee.* 

The  rattling  terrors  of  the  vengeful  snake  ; 

Where  crouching  tigers  wait  their  hapless  prey, 

And  savage  men  more  murderous  still  than  they  ; 

While  oft  in  whirls  the  mad  tornado  flies, 

Mingling  the  ravag'd  landscape  with  the  skies. 

Far  different  these  from  every  former  scene, 

The  cooling  brook,  the  grassy  vested  green, 

The  breezy  covert  of  the  warbling  grove, 

That  only  shelter'd  thefts  of  harmless  love." 

The  river's  name  pronounced  in  the  usual  manner  with  a  light  accent  on  the 
first  syllable  and  a  full,  strong  one  on  the  last,  thus  Jltvl—ta-tita—haw,  sounds 
very  like  an  Indian  word  ;  and  yet  quite  surely  it  is  not  of  Indian,  but  of  Span- 
ish parentage.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  reflecting  light  on  the  first  exploration 
of  the  State,  and  clearing  up  a  part  of  its  history  otherwise  obscure,  that  so 
many  of  the  Atlantic  rivers  of  Georgia  have  the  Spanish  stamp  on  their 
names. — as  the  St.  Mary's,  the  Great  and  Little  St.  Ilia,  the  Altamaha,  and 
last,  and  if  possible,  plainest  of  all,  the  Savannah.  For  no  one  can  ascend  that 
stream  from  the  sea,  or  stand  on  the  edge  of  the  bluff,  which  the  city  occupies, 
or  on  the  top  of  its  ancient  Exchange,  (which  may  fire,  and  war,  and  tempest, 
and  the  tooth  of  time,  and  the  felon  hand  of  improvement  long  spare,)  and  over- 
look the  vast  expanse  of  flat  lands  that  spread  out  on  both  sides  of  the  river, 
forming  in  winter  a  dark,  in  summer  a  green,  in  autumn  a  saffron  contrast  to 
its  bright,  intersecting  waters,  without  knowing  at  once  that  from  these  plains, 
these  savannas,  the  river  got  its  name,  derived  from  'the  Spanish  language  and 
the  Spanish  word  sabanna, — and  that  it  was  baptized  with  the  Christian,  though 
not  saintly  name  it  bears,  by  Spanish  discoverers  just  as  certainly  as  the  great 
grassy  planes  in  South  America  owed  their  name  of  Savannas  to  the  same  na- 
tional source.  The  case  of  the  Altamaha  is  equally  free  from  doubt,  though 
not  so  self-evident  on  the  first  glance.  It  comes  from  the  old,  now  disused 
Spanish  word  Mtamia,  pronounced  Altameeah,  signifying  a  deep  earthen  plate 
or  dish  of  whatever  form  ;  a  name  naturally  enough  suggested  by  the  charac- 
ter and  aspect,  deep,  broad,  still,  of-the  lower  end  of  the  river,  probably  the 
only  part  the  Spaniards  had  seen  when  they  christened  it,  and  which  doubtless 
looked  to  them  much  like  a  hugh,  longitudinal  dish  kept  brimful  rather  by  stag- 
nation of  its  waters  and  impulse  from  the  sea  than  by  large,  everflowing  sup- 
plies from  an  unknown  interior. 

*  The  Okeefeenokee  far  outsizes  all  the  swamps  of  the  world.  Even  that 
great  Serbonian  Bog,  celebrated  by  Milton, 

"Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Cassius  old 

Where  armies  whole  have  sunk  !" 

was  small  in  comparison.  In  old  times  when  Morse's  earlier  editions  were 
still  authority  in  the  Geography  of  the  United  States,  three  hundred  miles  was 


THE   OCONEE    WAR.  19 

The  stalwart,  taciturn  Chiefs  rejoiced  to  traverse  anew,  with 
noiseless  footfall,  the  great  woody  expanse,  now  profaned  and 
denaturalized  by  railroads,  then  only  threaded  by  the  tiny, 
interminable  Indian  trail,  for  which  no  tree  had  to  be  felled 
or  earth  removed;  and  they  exulted  to  know  it  again  as  their 
country's  unquestioned  domain,  reclaimed  from  the  Gal- 
phinton  cession  and  grasp  of  Georgia  by  that  treaty  of  New 
York  which  their  talks  had  demanded  and  their  hands  had 
signed. 

But  just  as  was  their  exultation  and  important  as  was  the 
the  territory  they  had  regained,  their  wild  countrymen  were 
far  from  being  satisfied.  They  had  gotten  back  very  much, 
it  was  true,  but  not  much  more  than  one-half,  in  supposed 
value  at  least,  of  what  they  had  eagerly  insisted  upon  and 
expected.  Nor  were  the  Georgians  better  content.  Nothing 
indeed  could  more  strikingly  show  how  difficult  and  malig- 
nant the  state  of  things  was,  and  how  stubborn  were  the 
obstacles  which  Spanish  interference  with  the  Indians  and 
the  bitter  temper  of  Georgia  towards  them  threw  in  the 
way,  than  the  fact  that  the  combined  nam^s  of  Washington 
and  McGillivray,  corroborated  by  the  strong  necessities  of 
the  case  and  the  plainest  dictates  of  policy,  availed  not  to 
render  the  treaty  acceptable  to  either  side.  The  Georgians, 
although  they  had  gotten  by  it  the  whole  of  the  so  much 
coveted  Oconee  country,  recalcitrated  because  it  retroceded 
to  the  Indians  the  above  named  Tallassee  country  between 
the  Altamaha  and  St.  Mary's,  and  also  because  of  its  per- 
petual guarantee  to  them  of  all  their  remaining  imceded 
territory.  And  although  the  Indians  had  gotten  this  guar- 

the  supposed  circumference  of  the  Okeefeenokee.  Modern  scepticism  has  les- 
sened it  one-half,  I  believe;  but  it  is  mere  guess  work.  Its  impenetrable  recesses 
defy  the  compass  and  chain,  and  its  outer  boundary  if  not  immeasurable, 
has  at  least  never  been  measured.  The  St.  Mary's  is  not  the  only  river  it 
feeds.  It  is  also  the  birth  place  of  the  Suwanee,  a  river  flowing  into  the  Gulf> 
the  present  name  of  which  is  a  corruption  of  the  Spanish  San  Juan,  dnglice, 
St.  John.  The  St.  Johns  of  the  English  and  of  this  day  was  the  St.  Matheo  of 
the  Spaniards. — Bancroft's  Hist.  U.  S.,  Vol.  1,  p.  61.  It  may  well  enhance  our 
sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Okeefeenokee  that  it  should  be  the  matrix  of  two 
such  rivers  as  the  St.  Mary's  and  the  Suwanee. 


20  THE   OCONEE   WAR. 

antee,  of  which  they  were  so  desirous,  and  had  also  gotten 
back  the  Tallassee  country  on  which  they  laid  so  much  stress 
as  an  indispensable  winter  hunting  ground,  and  likewise  on 
account  of  its  convenience  to  the  sea,  by  the  short  navigation 
of  the  St.  Mary's,  yet  they  were  ill-humored  because  they 
did  not  also  get  back  the  rich  gore  of  land  in  the  fork  of  the 
Oconee  and  Apalachee.  Indeed,  McGillivray  acquiesced 
most  reluctantly  in  this  feature  of  omission  in  the  treaty,  and 
gave  fair  notice  at  the  time  of  the  dissatisfaction  it  would 
cause  in  his  nation.  Under  all  these  circumstances  the 
treaty  led  not  to  an  entire  restoration  of  peace,  to  not  much 
more  indeed  than  a  feverish  lull  of  the  war.  Depredations 
and  occasional  outbreaks  of  hostility  continued  to  occur  and 
to  impart  an  uneasy  ill-natured  threatening  aspect  to  our 
Creek  Indian  affairs. 

Washington,  than  whom  no  man  ever  understood  better 
the  art  of  temporizing  wisely  or  knew  better  when  the  pre- 
cise moment  to  strike  and  for  decisive  action  had  come,  was 
in  no  hurry  by  precipitating  things,  to  endanger  the  chances 
which  he  saw  brightening  for  the  propitious  settlement  of 
the  whole  trouble,  Spanish  and  Indian,  at  one  time  and  by 
one  blow.  For  now  the  French  Revolution  had  broken  out, 
and  Spain  and  most  of  the  powers  of  Europe  began  soon  to 
be  drawn  within  its  vortex  or  to  tremble  on  its  verge,  aghast 
at  its  fierce  gyrations  and  direful  portents.  Meantime, 
Washington  kept  alive  his  negotiations  and  grew  more  posi- 
tive and  urgent  as  the  clouds  thickened  around  Spain  in 
Europe.  Yet  he  was  free  from  hot  haste.  For  he  saw  that 
the  mighty  chapter  of  accidents  which  God  alone  peruses 
and  overrules  was  now  in  rapid  evolution  and  likely  to  throw 
forth  opportunities  felicitous  for  his  country  in  this  and 
other  important  matters.  So  he  persisted  in  biding  his  time 
and  nursing  the  negotiation,  notwithstanding  the  impatient 
pressure  upon  him  from  Georgia  for  greater  energy  and 
celerity  in  his  measures.  At  length  the  European  distresses 
and  perils  of  Spain  reached  a  crisis  so  urgent  and  menacing 
as  made  her  feel  it  madness  to  enhance  her  other  ills  by  our 


OCONEE   WAR.  21 

enmity,  and  convinced  her  how  utterly  hopeless  it  was  to  con- 
tinue to  press  longer  her  vast  territorial  pretensions  against 
us,  under  the  very  shadow  of  our  gigantic  and  now  thrifty 
and  rapidly  growing  young  Republic.  In  the  midst  of  this 
crisis,  well  knowing  as  she  did,  that  the  claim  of  the  United 
States  was  one  that  could  by  no  possibility  ever  be  surren- 
dered whilst  men  and  muskets  remained  to  us,  she  made  a 
merit  of  the  necessity  which  it  was  useless  for  her  longer  to 
resist,  and  in  October,  1795,  entered  into  the  treaty  of  San 
Lorenzo,  ceding  to  us  all  her  claims  on  this  side  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  north  of  the  31st  parallel  and  west  of  the 
Chattahoochce.  At  the  same  time  confirming  the  old  boun- 
dary from  the  confluence  of  that  river  with  the  Flint  east- 
wardly  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's,  thus  surrendering, 
on  account  of  the  distresses  of  her  own  situation,  what  she 
never  would  have  yielded  up  to  a  sense  of  our  rights;  a  loss 
little  memorable,  however,  by  the  side  of  the  stupendous 
sacrifice  she  was  soon  afterwards  forced  to  make  of  her  im- 
mense and  splendid  Province  of  Louisiana  to  the  boundless 
ambition  and  rapacity  of  France. 

With  this  cession  by  Spain  of  her  cherished  claim  to  all 
the  Indian  Territory  that  had  been  in  contest  between  her- 
self and  the  United  States,  went  her  pretensions  to  a  pro- 
tectorate and  sovereignty  over  the  Indians  themselves  which 
were  founded  solely  on  that  claim.  The  Indians  were  there- 
fore now  left  to  themselves  and  to  us  without  any  chance  of 
foreign  aid  or  exposure  to  foreign  interference  or  instigation 
for  the  future.  Every  consequence  desirable  on  our  side 
followed  now  easily  and  almost  of  course.  The  root  of  mis- 
chief had  been  exterminated.  Friendly  tempers  and  dispo- 
sitions on  the  part  of  the  Indians  towards  us  had  only  to 
be  duly  courted  and  cultivated  on  our  part  in  order  to  insure 
their  rapid  development  and  growth.  Soon  the  fruit  of  a 
permanent  Indian  peace  was  fully  in  our  reach,  inviting  our 
grasp,  and  ready  to  drop  into  our  hands  as  the  natural  sequel 
of  the  happy  Spanish  adjustment  that  hud  taken  place.  It 
had  required  nearly  the  whole  length  of  Washington's 


22  THE   OCONEE   WAR. 

Administration  from  its  first  year  to  its  last  to  bring  things 
to  this  point, — to  manage  and  successfully  settle  this  its 
great  Southern  Spanish-Indian  trouble.  But  he  finally 
brought  it  to  an  auspicious  termination.  By  the  treaty  of 
Colraine,  concluded  as  we  have  seen  in  the  summer  of  1196, 
the  last  year  of  the  last  term  of  his  Presidency,  the  bound- 
aries stipulated  at  New  York  were  recognized  and  reaffirmed, 
and  the  seal  was  put  to  a  longed-for  and  lasting  peace,  and 
our  horizon  cleared  at  length  of  every  boding  Indian  cloud. 
For  both  Georgians  and  Indians  had  by  this  time  become 
educated  and  reconciled  to  those  boundaries  and  were  never 
again  disposed  to  quarrel  about  them;  a  temper  of  mind  in 
a  large  degree  induced  by  Washington's  immense  weight  of 
character  with  both  sides,  and  by  their  natural  feeling  of  sub- 
mission to  the  grandeur  of  the  power,  which  he  represented 
and  wielded.  All  which  however  might  have  failed  of  such 
early  and  full  effect  on  the  Indians,  but  for  the  disheartening 
fact  which  stared  them  in  the  face,  that  the  territory  to  the 
east  of  the  Oconee  and  its  prongs  for  which  they  had  been 
contending,  was  already  hopelessly  lost  to  them,  having 
become,  during  the  contention,  filled  up  and  occupied  by  a 
population  more  than  able  and  intensely  determined  to  hold 
and  defend  it  against  them  forever. 


ALEXANDER   M'UILLIVRAY.  23 


CHAPTER    III. 


ALEXANDER    McGlLLIVRAY. 

Thus  long  liave  I,  yielding  to  a  just  love  and  partiality 
for  the  section  of  Georgia  in  which  I  was  l)orn  and  in  which 
the  bones  of  my  forefathers  repose,  lingered  and  dwelt  on 
the  tnmhlous  and  important  interval  of  time  which  elapsed 
from  its  first  acquisition  and  settlement  down  to  its  final 
pacification.  And,  moreover,  it  is  a  portion  of  the  history 
of  the  State  well  worthy,  on  its  own  account,  to  be  recalled 
and  remembered,  for  it  records  a  great  step, — a  striking 
epoch  in  her  progress  and  development.  But  it  is  impossi- 
ble not  to  be  conscious  that  the  scenes  and  events  of  that 
period  have  had  their  full  day  on  the  world's  stage  and  in 
men's  minds,  and  now  not  only  have  they  passed  off  from 
both,  but  there  is  no  longer  a  generation  living  whose  blood 
could  be  made  to  tingle  at  their  recital.  And  yet  to  me, 
long  accustomed  to  cherish  dearly  the  memories  and  tradi- 
tions of  niy  native  soil,  it  has  often  seemed  that  in  this  pro- 
tracted, fitful,  frontier  war  for  the  lordship  of  the  Oconee 
lands,  there  was  much. in  regard  both  to  the  actors  and  the 
things  enacted  on  which  the  mind  might  dwell  not  unre- 
warded, and  which  Georgians  at  least  ought  not  willingly 
to  let  go  down  to  oblivion. 

Particularly  has  it  struck  me  that  connected  with  this  w;ir 
there  was  a  signal  circumstance,  which  rendered  it  excep- 
tional and  ennobled  it  among  Indian  wars.  The  proud  fact, 
I  mean,  that  it  was  the  theatre  on  which  was  conspicuously 
displayed  one  of  those  infrequent,  extraordinary  characters 
that  history  loves  to  contemplate,  and  which,  however  they 
may  specially  belong  to  some  one  people,  sector  class,  during 


24  ALEXANDER   M'QILLIVRAY. 

their  active,  living  career,  become  the  large  and  general 
property  of  mankind  when  dead. 

Such  a  character  was  Alex.  McGillivray,  by  all  odds  the 
foremost  man  of  Indian  blood  and  raising  that  Anglo-Amer- 
ica has  ever  seen  ;  one  who  was  universally  allowed  and  felt 
in  his  day  to  be  the  very  soul  of  the  Creek  nation,  which 
was  almost  absolutely  swayed  by  his  genius  and  will.  And 
be  it  remembered,  that  it  was  not  a  petty,  confined  tribe  that 
was  thus  swayed  by  him,  and  swayed,  too,  in  a  manner  and 
with  an  ability  which  struck  enlightened  civilized  observers 
with  admiration,  but  a  wide  extended  Indian  commonwealth, 
exulting  in  thousands  of  fearless  warriors  and  an  hundred 
organized  towns,  all  under  their  respective  Chiefs,*  over- 
spreading a  region  far  greater  than  all  Georgia  now  is. 
McGillivray  was  Supreme  Chief  of  the  whole,  freely  eleva- 
ted to  that  height  by  his  fierce  countrymen  because  of  his 
superior  qualities  and  merits,  aided  also  by  some  consider- 
able advantages  of  family  and  connection.  He  made  him- 
self effectively  felt  all  the  while  throughout  his  wild  do- 
mains and  the  surrounding  parts.  His  entire  country  lay 
within  the  chartered  bounds  of  Georgia  and  Florida,  and 
the  absorbing  study  and  struggle  of  his  life,  after  our  Revo- 
lutionary war,  was  how  to  save  it  from  the  territorial  greed 
of  Georgia, — a  danger  from  which  he  early  augured  that 
ruin  to  his  nation,  which  long  after  his  death  was  so  fully 
realized.  Peace  or  war  with  us  he  clearly  saw  was  alike 
perilous  to  his  country,  and  he  would  gladly  have  kept  her 
away  as  well  from  our  caresses  as  from  our  hostilities,  for 
they  both  always. equally  menaced  her  integrity,  looking  as 
they  invariably  did,  to  still  other  treaties  and  other  surren- 
ders of  land.  Fully  sensible  of  the  difficulty  and  peril  of 
his  country's  situation,  he  glanced  keenly  around  in  every 
direction  for  extrication  and  support.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  he  had  formed  and  was  seeking  to  accomplish  the 
scheme  of  an  intimate  and  permanent  confederation  of  the 

*  American  State  Papers.  Indian  Jiff  airs,  Vol.  1st,  p.   15;   Gen.  Knox's  Report 
of  July  Qlh,  1789. 


ALEXANDER   M'GILLIVRAY.  25 

four  great  Southern  tribes,  the  Creeks,  Cherokees,  Choctaws 
and  Chickasaws,  of  which  he  would  undoubtedly  have  be- 
come the  head  alike  in  fact  and  in  form.  He  turned  his  at- 
tention also  to  Florida  and  Spain,  and  became  an  apt  diplo- 
matist and  negotiator  with  the  Spanish  authorities  in  Pen- 
sacola,  Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  and  our  own  national  ar- 
chives abound  in  proof  how  well  he  acquitted  himself  in  all 
his  transactions  and  correspondence  with  our  public  diction- 
aries and  commissioners.* 

Col.  Stagrove,  United  States  Agent  among  the  Creeks,  and 
other  minor  national  officials,  as  well  as  the  Georgians  gen- 
erally of  that  day,  used  oddly  enough  to  inveigh  against 
him  for  what  they  called  his  duplicity.  The  charge,  it  must 
be  admitted,  was  not  purely  fictitious,  though  certainly  not 
very  reasonable  or  just  in  the  quarter  from  whence  it  came. 
What  right  have  the  strong  to  cast  such  a  reproach  on  the 
weak,  whom  they  are  seeking  to  oppress  and  dispossess  by 
sheer  means  of  greater  force?  And  yet  it  is  the  standing 
reproach,  which  in  all  ages,  the  vis  major,  superior,  over- 
bearing power  has  been  wont  to  hurl  at  the  feeble,  whenever 
they  have  happened  to  be  troiiblesomely  successful  in  em- 
ploying what  is  stigmatized  as  artifice  and  cunning  for  their 
defense  and  safety.  Undoubtedly  in  the  circumstances,  in 
which  McGillivray  saw  himself  placed,  threatened  by  Georgia 
and  the  United  States  on  the  one  hand,  treacherously  embraced 
and  instigated  by  Spain  on  the  other,  both  powers  an  entire 
overmatch  for  his  own  country,  he  must  needs  have  aban- 
doned that  country's  cause  to  ruin  or  resorted  to  somewhat 
of  duplicity  for  her  sake,  that  is  to  say,  he  was  compelled  to 
play  adroitly  between  the  two  dreaded  powers.  In  such  a 
situation  duplicity  changed  its  nature  and  became,  as  prac- 
tised by  him,  a  high,  patriotic  virtue,  the  only  one,  indeed, 
which  he  could  make  count  for  much  against  two  such  hol- 
low friends  and  real  rival  enemies  as  he  had  too  much  reason 
to  fear  they  both  were.  Accordingly  he  deserves  no  censure 
from  us  or  from  anybody,  because,  incensed  and  alarmed  at 

*See  1st  Vol.  American  State  Papers  on  Indian  Jljfairs — passim. 


26  ALEXANDER    M'GILLIVRAY. 

the  deep  incision  made  into  his  territory  by  our  fathers  at 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  he  hastened  to  throw 
himself  into  the  arms  of  Spain  as  a  security  and  resentment 
alike  against  Georgia  and  the  United  States.  After  contin- 
uing firm  for  a  number  of  years  to  this  enforced  Spanish 
preference,  learning  from  his  own  keen  observation,  as  well 
as  from  all  the  antecedents  of  Spain  in  America,  what  abun- 
dant cause  there  was  to  bo  distrustful  of  her,  he  oscillated 
back  towards  the  United  State -=,  attracted  by  the  great  con- 
fidence inspired  by  the  character  of  Washington,  by  the 
concentration  of  all  power  over  Indian  affairs  in  the  Federal 
Government,  arid  by  the  better  terms  and  stipulations  now 
held  out  from  our  side  to  his  own  and  all  other  Indian  tribes. 
Yet  it  is  obvious  that  in  taking  this  great  turn  which  culmi- 
nated so  quickly  in  the  treaty  of  New  York,  he  was  far  from 
coutbmplating  any  breach  with  Spain.  For  he  deemed  it 
his  policy  to  keep  a  strong,  though  latent  hold  on  her  as  a 
safeguard  against  the  United  States,,  whom,  nevertheless,  he 
was  bent  on  attaching  as  a  friend,  and  holding,  moreover,  as 
a  guarantor  of  the  territory  of  the  Indians  against  all  the 
world,  Spain  included. 

In  the  meantime,  as  already  mentioned,  he  was  scheming 
to  construct  a  grand  confederacy  of  the  four  great  Southern 
tribes  which  might  serve  as  a  bulwark  to  the  whole  of  them 
agciinst  the  grasping  designs  of  both  the  United  States  and 
Spain.  It  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  the  most  consum- 
mate political  genius  could  hardly  have  devised  anything 
better  or  more  suited  to  the  circumstances  than  this,  his 
plan,  in  its  entirety.  Had  he  lived  to  bring  it  to  perfection 
and  launch  it  into  operation,  there  is  no  telling  how  much 
it  might  have  changed  the  whole  character  and  current  of 
our  subsequent  Indian  relations  and  history,  and  prevented 
many  disastrous  Indian  (and  perhaps  also  Spanish)  events 
that  afterwards  took  place.  It  might  even  have  been  that 
the  Creeks,  Cherokees,  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  instead 
of  dwindling  away,  as  they  now  seem  likely  to  do,  unhappy 
exotics  in  their  compulsory  Trans-Mississippi  homes,  would 


ALEXANDER   M*GILLIVRAY.  27 

have  become,  under  his  auspices,  one  grand,  consolidated, 
Indian  commonwealth,  rooted  and  flourishing  permanently 
on  their  beloved  ancestral  soil,  and  destined  finally  perhaps 
to  full,  fraternal  incorporation  into  our  mighty  American 
system  of  States.  Such  at  least  was  the  consummation 
which,  it  is  known  and  recorded,  this  great  Muscogee  patriot 
and  statesman  had  conceived  and  suggested  in  regard  to 
his  own  particular  tribe. 

Behold  here  the  magnanimous  hopes  that  flattered  Mc- 
Gillivray  arid  occupied  his  thoughts  and  fired  his  ambition  ! 
But  he  was  arrested  by  death  in  the  midst  of  these  high  and 
beneficent  machinations,  and  at  a  time,  too,  when  he  was 
apparently  under  a  cloud.  If  his  life  had  been  prolonged, 
time  would  probably,  however,  have  vindicated  his  strategy 
and  his  control  over  events,  and  it  is  likely  that  a  brighter 
sun  and  a  broader  and  more  brilliant  horizon  would  have 
beamed  out  upon  him  than  he  had  ever  known.  With  en- 
dowments such  as  distinguished  him,  with  such  a  prestige 
as  he  had  with  the  Indians  of  his  own  and  all  the  neigh- 
boring tribes,  and  his  strong,  easy  influence  over  them,  for- 
tune could  hardly  have  continued  lastingly  untractable  to- 
wards him.  His  authority  with  his  people  had  a  vitality 
which  reached  beyond  his  life.  Whilst  the  tone  of  the 
Creek  nation  went  down  considerably  from  the  time  of  his 
death,  yet  for  years  afterwards  the  subtle  influence  that  had 
long  emanated  from  him  and  ruled  in  Creek  affairs,  survived 
him  and  continued  to  be  felt.  Particularly  was  it  an  ele- 
ment along  with  the  name  of  Washington  and  other  causes 
that  gradually  led  his  countrymen  to  become  reconciled  to 
the  long  distasteful  treaty  of  New  York,  for  which  he 
was  responsible  as  its  almost  sole  negotiator  and  author  on 
the  Indian  side, — his  brother  Chiefs  having  been  not  much 
more  than  machines  in  his  hands  in  that  great  piece  of  In- 
dian diplomacy. 

If  ever  there  shall  arise  a  weird  pen  fitted  to  deal  with 
such  a  subject,  it  will  find  in  this  man's  character  and 
career  a  theme  full  of  inspiration  and  demanding  all  its 


28  ALEXANDER    M  (ULLIVRAY. 

power.  The  fabled  centaur  of  antiquity,  thai  marvelous 
conception  of  the  human,  united  with  the  equine  form  and 
nature,  was  but  a  fiction,  though  one  full  of  richest  mcan- 
in«\  The  scarcely  less  wonderful  union  of  the  civilized  with 
the  savage  man  in  Alexander  McGillivray  was  a  hard,  tan- 
gible reality,  the  most  felicitous  compound  of  the  kind  ever 
seen.  Both  by  lineage  and  education  he  was  heir  to  the 
two  natures,  which  co-existed  in  him  seemingly  without  con- 
flict and  with  great  force  and  harmony  of  development. 
In  youth  he  had  what  Washington  and  Franklin  had,  a 
common  English  education,  sufficient  to  enable  him  as  them 
in  after  life  to  impress  on  all  men  a  strong  sense  of  the  great- 
ness which  nature  had  bestowed,  and  which  fortune  and  cir- 
cumstances exercised  to  the  utmost  and  brought  out  fully  to 
the  world's  view;  The  shrewdness,  the  robust  sense  and 
I  crude  force  of  the  Scotch  Highland  Chieftain  were  blended 
in  him  with  cairn  Indian  subtlety  and  intensity,  and  the  in- 
nate dignity  of  the  Muscogee  warrior  statesman.  He  had 
great  ambition,  great  abilities,  and  what  is  most  of  all,  and 
the  true  imperial  sign  of  greatness,  he  had  great  power 
of  influencing  and  controlling  men  on  a  large  scale  and  in 
great  affairs.  What  an  outgrowth  of  civilization  on  what 
a  stock  of  barbarism  !  Like  most  very  strong  natures,  he 
was  strong  at  once  by  his  virtues  and  talents,  which  were 
great  and  many,  and  by  his  vices,  which  were  few  but  tell- 
ing, though  not  deformed  by  Indian  ferocity,  (for  he  was  a 
stranger  to  the  thirst  for  blood,  and  his  breast  was  the  seat 
of  humanity)  whilst  all  his  qualities,  good  and  bad,  were 
apt  to  his  situation  and  the  necessities  of  the  part  he  had  to 
play.  It  has  been  said,  more  daringly  than  reverently  or 
truly,  that  it  took  nature  a  gestation  of  a  thousand  years  to 
produce  a  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  The  great  mother  of  us  all 
ought  not  to  be  thus  slurred  in  order  to  add  to  the  renown 
of  one  of  her  sons.  But  this  much  is  certainly  true  :  Long 
intervals  often  occur  without  witnessing  any  of  those  extra- 
ordinary conjunctures,  which  are  necessary  to  the  production 
and  manifestation  of  great  and  extraordinary  men,  and  it  is 


ALEXANDER   M'GTLLIVRAY.  29 

not  by  any  means  probable  that  the  world  will  soon  again 
have  the  opportunity  of  beholding  the  like  of  General  Mc- 
Gillivray.  For  to  ibis  end,  there  must  happen  the  coupling 
of  another  man  such  as  him  with  a  fortune  and  circumstances 
as  peculiar  and  extraordinary  as  his,  and  which,  acting  on 
him,  made  him  what  he  was  and  blest  him,  moreover,  with  a 
felicity  seldom  the  lot  of  the  great  among  barbarians,  that 
of  being  well  handed  down  in  civilized  records,  and  conse- 
quently rightly  known  to  civilized  people — the  only  arbi- 
ters of  fame  and  custodians  of  glory.  Yet  let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed that  his  good  fortune  in  this  regard,  though  marked, 
w.-is  perfect  and  entire.  In  the  mention  of  it,  therefore, 
there  must  be  some  reserve.  History  has  not  been  enabled 
to  present  him  fully.  She  has  only  preserved  and  spread 
before  us  the  last  half,  or  it  may  be  less  than  the  last  half, 
of  his  public  active  career.  When  she  first  takes  him  up 
and  makes  him  her  thome,  to-wit:  at  the  opening  of  the 
Creek  troubles  with  Georgia,  soon  after  the  Revolutionary 
\\  ar,he  was  already  in  the  maturity  of  his  greatness,  and  at  the 
pinnacle  of  power.  Of  the  length  of  time  he  had  been  there, 
of  the  steps  and  means,  by  which  he  had  risen  so  high,  and 
the  talents  and  conduct  by  which  he  had  sustained  and  il- 
lustrated himself  in.  that  elevation,  there  is  not,  there  never 
was,  any  record,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  find. out,  and  all 
tradition  in  relation  thereto,  has  long  since  either  perished 
or  become  apocryphal,  except  the  general  fact  of  his  having 
at  one  time  served  under  his  father  as  a  deputy  in  the  Brit- 
ish Indian  Agency  during  the  Revolutionary  war — with  the 
titular  rank  of  a  British  Colonel.* 

His  father  was  a  Georgian,  Lacklan  McGillivray,  who 
came  in  early  youth  from  Scotland  and  was  among  those, 
who,  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  sided  strongly  with  Great 
Britain.  He  was  a  leading  Indian  trader,  a  man  of  property 
and  consequence,  and  his  name  appears  in  the  acts  of  confis- 
cation and  banishment  passed  by  Georgia.  His  mother  was 
a  principal  Creek  woman  of  striking  personal  charms, 

*..-lntcric(in  Stdlc   Papers.  Indian  Jlffalrs,  3d  V(>1.,  788. 


30  ALEXANDER    M'GILLIVRAY. 

heightened,  it  is  said,  by  sonic  French  blood  in  her  veins, 
aud  he  himself  was  a  Georgian  born.  The  circumstances  of 
his  parentage  and  breeding  would  naturally  have  carried 
him  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemies  of  the  State.  But  tradi- 
tion and  written  accounts  alike  inform  us  that  it  was  his 
father's  banishment  and  the  confiscation  of  his  father's 
estate  that  envenomed  his  heart  and  tilled  it  with  deep,  vin- 
dictive hatred  of  Georgia  and  her  people.  Notwithstanding 
which,  Georgia  may  well  feel  some  pride  that  such  a  man 
was  her  son,  whom  destiny,  not  his  own  fault  or  crime, 
made  her  enemy.  For  he  who  devotes  himself  ably,  patri- 
otically, unflinchingly  and  untiringly  in  the  higher  and  more 
perilous  spheres  of  service  to  the  cause  of  his  country's  sal- 
vation, unimportant  though  that  country  may  be  in  the 
world's  mouth  or  mind,  merits  the  homage  of  mankind  and 
|  even  of  those  against  whom  he  has  devoted  himself  in  such 
a  cause. 

He  died  on  the  17th  of  February,  1*793,  a  peaceful  death 
on  civilized  soil,  whilst  a  visitor  at  Pensacola  among  those 
{Spanish  friends  and  allies  with  whom  he  had  long  been  ac- 
customed to  work  and  plot  against  us,  whom  at  the  same 
time  he  too  shrewdly  understood,  and  too  profoundly  fath- 
omed, not  to  see  that  there  was  reason  why  he  should  watch 
them  closely  and  make  a  friend  of  the  United  States  against 
them.  Arid  yet,  as  if  fate  had  decreed  that  in  everything 
and  to  the  very  last  there  should  be  something  remarkable 
and  out  of  the  common  course  in  regard  to  him,  this  man, 
whom  nature  and  fortune  had  concurred  to  make  great,  dy- 
ing there  on  Spanish  soil,  was  spurned  when  dead  by  Span- 
ish religion  and  denied  burial  in  their  sacred  ground*  by 
those  who  had  courted  and  magnified  him  while  living,  and 
was  left  to  be  obscurely  interred  by  private  arid  profane 
hands  in  the  garden  of  his  Scotch  friend,  Panton,  the  great 
Indian  trader,  where  doubtless  all  trace  of  his  grave  has 
long  since  vanished,  and  the  spot  will  be  forever  unknown, 
which  inhumes  the  once  famous  and  potential  Alexander 

*  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  1,  :>>$:>. 


ALKXAXDFK    M'tUU.lVltAY.  31 

McGillivray.  Wliat  a  contrast  to  the  treatment  of  the  aged 
and  distinguished  Choctaw  Chief  Pushmataha,  who,  dying 
at- Washington  in  1824,  not  only  found  an  honored  grave 
in  the  Congressional  burying  ground  with  monumental  stone 
and  inscription,  but  whose  dying  wish,  "when  I  am  gone, 
let  the  big  guns  be  fired  over  me,"  was  touchingly  fulfilled 
by  the  booming  of  minute  guns  from  Capitol  Hill,  the  roar 
of  cannon  over  his  grave  and  all  the  accompanying  pomps 
and  glories  of  a  grand  and  crowded  public  funeral.*  But 
the  indignant  shade  of  McGillivray  was  not  left  long  dis- 
consolate under  this  poor  Spanish  slight.  Precious  amends 
came  soon  to  soothe  and  requite.  The  news  of  his  death, 
traveling  by  way  of  the  Havana  and  Baltimore,  reached 
Washington  in  the  latter  city  en  route  to  Mount  Vernon  to 
enjoy  there  a  few  days'  repose  from  the  toils  of  the  Presi- 
dency. That  great  nature  which  ever  discerned  and  honored 
sterling  worth  and  true  nobility  of  mind  and  character 
wherever  they  existed,  in  whomsoever  of  human  found,  had 
recognized  these  qualities  in  McGillivray  and  felt  his  kindred 
to  himself.  He  felt  consequently  his  death,  and  on  arriving 
at  Mount  Verriou  wrote  to  Gen.  Knox  informing  him  of  the 
event  and  calling  the  deceased  their  friend.  When  we  re- 
member what  ample  and  identical  opportunities  Gen.  Wash- 
ington and  Gen.  Knox  had  both  had  of  knowing  McGilli- 
vray well,  and  how  chary  Washington  always  was  of  praise, 
and  how  few  and  chosen  were  the  men  to  whom  he  ever  ap- 
plied the  sympathetic  phrase  of  friend,  this  simple  spon- 
taneous testimonial  from  the  greatest  of  Americans  to  the 
illustrious  Muscogee  Chief  goes  to  the  heart  and  arrests  the 
mind  by  its  high  value  and  touching  significance. t 

History  too  often  slights  and  neglects  to  record  many  mi- 
nor things  about  which  posterity  feels  curious  and  would 
gladly  be  informed  touching  distinguished  and  important 
personages.  The  Heroditus  of  Alabama  has,  however, 
avoided  this  fault  in  the  case  of  McGillivray,  and  has  grati- 

*C»l.  MrKriinij's  Indian  Lives  and  Portraits  ;    Tillc,  Pushmataha. 
tS/xi;-/^  Life  and  Writing*  of    Washington,  Vol.  10,  p.  335. 


32  ALEXANDER   M'GILLIVRAY. 

fled  us  fully  in  regard  to  his  person,  appearance,  manners 
and  other  outward  circumstances.  He  describes  him  as  "six 
feet  high,  spare  made  and  remarkably  erect,  in  person  and 
carriage.  His  eyes  Avere  large,  dark  and  piercing.  His 
forehead  was  so  peculiarly  (shaped  that  the  old  Indian  coun- 
trymen often  spoke  of  it.  It  commenced  expanding  at  the 
eyes  and  widened  considerably  at  the  top  of  his  head.  It 
was  a  hold,  lofty  forehead.  His  fingers  were  long  and 
tapering,  and  he  wielded  a  pen  with  the  greatest  rapidity. 
His  face  was  handsome  and  indicative  of  quick  thought  and 
much  sagacity.  Unless  interested  in  conversation  he  was 
disposed  to  be  taciturn,  hut  even  then  WHS  polite  and  respect- 
ful. When  a  British  Colonel  he  dressed  in  the  British  uni- 
form, and  when  in  the  Spanish  service  he  wore  the  military 
dress  of  that  country.  AV'hen  Washington  bestowed  on  him 
the  honorary  rank  and  title  of  a  Brigadier-General,  he 
sometimes  wore  the  uniform  of  the  American  army,  hut 
never  in  the  presence  of  the  Spaniards.  His  usual  dress 
was  a  mixture  of  the  Indian  and  American  garb.  He  al- 
ways traveled  with  two  servants,  David  Francis,  a  half- 
breed,  and  Paro,  a  negro.  11(5  was  the  owner  at  his  death 
of  sixty  negroes,  three  hundred  head  of  cattle  and  a  large 
stock  of  horses.  He  had  good  houses  at  the  Hickory 
Grounds  and  Little  Tallassee,  where  he  entertained  free  of 
charge  distinguished  Government  Agents  and  persons  trav- 
eling through  his  extensive  dominions.  Like  all  other  men 
he  had  his  faults.  He  was  ambitious,  crafty  and  rather  un- 
scrupulous, yet  he  possessed  a  good  heart  and  was  polite  and 
Hospitable.  For  ability  and  sagacity  he  had  few  superiors."* 
It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  McGillivray's  cra- 
nial development  as  here  given  :  It  is  the  very  ideal  of  the 
sculptor  for  a  head  pregnant  and  alive  with  combined  intel- 
lectual and  moral  power.  If  any  man  wants  to  be  well  sat- 
isfied on  this  point,  let  him  go  and  gaze  on  the  bust  of  the 
young  Augustus  by  the  Kentucky  artist,  Harte,  which  I 
saw  at  the  Louisville  Exposition  in  the  fall  of  1872. 

*Pickett's  History  of  Alabama,  Vol.  2,  Ch.  24,  p.  142,  143. 


GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK.  33 


IV. 


GENERAL    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

And  on  our  own,  the  civilized  side,  there  was  also  a  prom- 
inent representative  character,  whom  we  should  not  over- 
look ;  a  leading,  sterling,  nobly  meritorious,  yet  unhappily 
before  the  end  of  his  career,  a  somewhat  erring  soldier  and 
patriot,  whom  it  would  be  wrong  and  incomplete  to  quit  the 
Oconee  war  without  noticing  and  honoring,  and  whom  at 
the  same  time  it  is  impossible  to  recollect  without  some  feel- 
ing of  melancholy. 

If  I  were  asked  what  man  in  those  uneasy,  perilous  times 
was  most  formidable  to  the  savage  foe,  most  serviceable  to 
the  exposed  frontier,  most  unsparing  of  himself,  ever  fore- 
most, in  doing  or  attempting  whatever  he  saw  was  best  for 
the  security  and  advancement  of  the  State  ;  who,  whilst  he 
lived,  always  made  himself  strongly  felt  wherever  he  took 
part,  and  who,  now  when  we  look  back,  continues  still  to  be 
seen  in  the  mind's  eye  stalking1  sternly,  with  his  armor  on, 
across  the  troublous  space  he  once  so  bravely  filled  in  our 
dim,  historic  past;  his  stalwart,  war-hardened  form,  yet 
dominant  on  the  theatre  where  he  was  so  long  wont  at  dif- 
ferent periods  to  suffer,  fight  and  strive  for  Georgia,  not 
against  the  Indians  only,  but  against  the  British  Tories 
also  ;  my  prompt  answer  would  be  that  General  Clark,  the 
elder,  Elijah  Clark,  the  father,  was  that  man.  I  designate 
him  thus  because,  distinguished  as  he  was  himself,  no 
Georgian,  who  lived  half  a  century  ago,  could  possibly  re- 
call him  without  remembering  instantly  that  it  was  his  good 
fortune  to  be  further  felicitously  distinguished,  by  having  a 
son,  also  a  General,  who  during  a  long  striking  career 


34  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

courted  and  acquired  great  eminence,  both  personal  and  offi- 
cial, and  honorably  illustrated,  if  he  did  not  augment  the 
name  he  inherited,  leaving  it  more  intensely  imprinted  at 
least,  if  not  higher  enrolled  on  Fame's  proud  catalogue. 
Thus  much  one,  who  was  never  his  political  friend,  drops  in 
passing,  as  a  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  memory  of  that 
strong  charactered,  most  remarkable  man,  General  Clark, 
the  son,  about  whom  his  fellow  citizens  were  too  long  and 
fiercely  divided  in  his  life-time  to  have  become  fully  recon- 
ciled since  his  death,  now  about  forty  years  ago.  That  re- 
conciliation, will  not,  if  ever,  be  perfect  till  its  cause  shall 
be  pleaded  at  the  bar  of  an  entirely  new  generation. 

General  Elijah  Clark  was  indebted  in  no  small  degree,  to 
the  fact  of  his  residence  in  \Vilkes  county,  on  the  then  up- 
per border  of  the  State,  for  his  great  conspicuousness  in  our 
past  Revolutionary  Indian  troubles.  Had  he  lived  on  the 
seaboard  or  anywhere  else  far  down  the  country,  it  is  almost 
certain  that  his  part  in  those  scenes  would  not  have  been  so 
important,  stirring  and  incessant ;  neither  would  he  prob- 
ably have  become  involved,  as  a  consequence  partly  at  least 
of  his  connection  with  1hem,  in  those  more  than  question- 
able doings,  which  in  his  latter  years  drew  down  condemna- 
tion for  him  from  the  highest  and  best  quarters,  and  which 
have  furnished  a  handle  to  a  recent  historian  for  reflecting 
altogether  too  injuriously  on  his  name  and  fame.*  Resid- 
ing, however,  as  he  did,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  Indian  hostilities  and  depredations,  he  could  not  but  be 
aroused  by  them  to  continual  vigilance  and  activity.  More- 
over, the  very  high  military  reputation  which  he  had  won 
and  brought  out  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  made  him  the 
man,  to  whom  all  the  upper  new  settlements  looked  as  the 
most  competent  of  leaders  and  the  most  fearless  of  fighters. 
Hence  the  universal  voice  of  men,  women  and  children  con- 
spired with  his  own  patriotic  and  pugnacious  qualities  and 
impulses  to  bring  him  to  the  front  in  every  emergency  of 
much  danger  and  anxiety.  On  such  occasions  at  his  bugle 

•Steven's  History  of  Georgia,  Vol.  2,  p.  404,  405,  406. 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  35 

call,  there  never  failed  to  come  trooping  to  him  from  the 
freshly  cleared  fields  and  still  uncleared  forests,  hands  of 
armed  men,  at  the  head  of  whom  he  would  repel  incursions, 
and  pursue  and  punish  the  flying  foe  even  in  the  distant  re- 
cesses of  his  wild  woods. 

The  most  signal  battle  in  this  whole  war,  that  of  Jack's 
Creek,  in  what  was  then  Indian  territory,  but  is  now  Walton 
county,  was  fought  by  him  in  the  year  1787,  in  this  way.* 
It  is  striking  to  read  his  report  of  this  battle  to  Gov.  Mat- 
thews. No  mention  is  made  in  it,  of  his  having  a  son  in  the 
battle,  though  with  a  just  paternal  pride,  commingled  with 
a  proper  delicacy,  he  emphasizes  together  the  gallantry  and 
conduct  of  Col.  Freeman  and  Major  Clark,  and  baptizes 
the  thereto  nameless  little  stream,  on  which  the  battle  was 
fought,  by  simply  saying  that  it  was  called  Jack's  Creek — a 
name  then  but  just  bestowed  by  admiring  comrades  in  arms 
in  compliment  to  the  exploits  and  bravery  of  the  General's 
youthful  son  on  the  occasion.  Long,  very  long  after  that 
son  had  ceased  to  be  young  and  the  frosts  of  winter  were  on 
his  warlike  and  lofty  brow,  thousands  and  thousands  of  old 
Georgians  used  to  love  still  to  repeat  the  name  of  Jack 
Clark  without  prefix  of  either  Governor  or  General,  and  to 
remember  him  too  as  the  hero  of  the  well  fought  and  impor- 
tant, though  now  it  would  be  deemed,  tiny  battle  of  Jack's 
Creek.  For  in  those  days  of  hourly  dread  and  peril,  to  be 
forward  and  valiant  in  defending  the  settlements  from  the 

*  White's  Statistics  581  ;  Historical  Collections  672.  -White  in  his  Statistics 
of  Georgia  dignifies  this  battle  no  little  by  saying  that  the  Indians  were  com- 
manded by  McGillivray;  a  great  mistake,  which  White  himself  tacitly  acknowl- 
edges by  wholly  omitting  any  such  statement  in  the  account  he  gives  of  the  battle 
in  his  subsequent  and  more  labored  work,  "The  Historical  Collections  of  Geor- 
gia." Moreover,  if  a  fact  that  would  have  added  so  much  to  the  eclat  of  the 
battle  and  victory,  had  really  existed,  Gen.  Clark  would  hardly  have  left  it  out 
of  his  official  report  of  the  battle  to  Gov.  Matthews.  And  yet  Gen.  Clark  says 
nothing  about  it.  McGillivray's  forte  and  function  to  which  he  always  con- 
fined himself  was  that  of  being  the  great  statesman  and  supreme  magistrate 
at  the  helm  of  his  nation,  not  a  leader  of  the  petty  bands  by  which  Indian  war- 
fare was  waged. 


36  GEN.   ELIJAH    CLARK. 

Indian  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife  was  a   sure  road    to 
everybody's  lasting  admiration  and  gratitude. 

The  sudden,  irregular  calls  thus  made  hy  the  old  General 
to  armed  attack  and  pursuit  of  the  Indians,  and  the  prompt, 
rushing  obedience  the  rural  new  settlers  invariably  yielded 
him,  were  merely  occasional  things,  it  is  true,  but  they  oc- 
curred often  enough  and  were  successful  enough  to  make  the 
General  feel  what  power  he  had  among  the  people  and  to 
familiarize  and  endear  his  exercises  of  that  power  to  the 
people.  But  destiny,  which  had  hitherto  been  forced  into 
being  his  friend  by  his  irresistable  valor  and  energy,  and  by 
his  ardent,  uniform  adherence  to  a  right  conduct  in  all 
things,  began  at  length  to  be  his  enemy  and  to  impel  him 
into  some  improper  and  ill-starred,  though  not  ill-meant 
courses.  His  first  error  was  his  lending  himself  to  the 
scheme  of  the  unmannerly,  mischief-making  French  Minis- 
ter, Genet;  his*  next,  that  of  setting  on  foot  the  Oconee 
Rebellion,  as  it  was  called;  missteps,  both  of  which,  were 
owing  rather  to  accidental  circumstances  existing  at  that 
particular  time,  than  to  any  intentional  wrong  doing  on  his 
part.  For  the  Indian  war,  which,  although  not  entirely 
quashed  as  yet  by  the  New  York  treaty,  was  by  its  influence 
greatly  crippled  and  reduced  in  magnitude,  no  longer  pre- 
sented a  sufficient  field  for  the  restless,  bellicose  passions 
which  it  had  nurtured.  These  passions  not  having  died  out 
proportionately  with  the  war,  were  still  alive  and  smoulder- 
ing in  many  adventurous  bosoms,  among  others  in  Gen. 
Clark's,  at  the  date  of  Genet's  arrival  in  the  United  States, 
in  the  Spring  of  1793,  and  engaging  in  his  insurrectionary 
tamperings  against  the  foreign  policy  of  our  Government. 
The  French  insanity,  which  had  already  seized  strongly  on 
the  country,  now  rapidly  spread  and  increased.  Most  gen- 
erally, however,  it  found  vent  only  in  a  wordy  fray  intended 
to  influence  the  Government  and  to  drive  it  from  its  neutral 
policy  into  a  belligerency  on  the  French  side.  But  Gen. 
Clark  was  by  all  his  temperament,  training  and  habits,  a 
man  of  emphatic  deeda  and  substantial  daring,  and  when 


GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK.  37 

the  French  wild-lire  readied  him,  it  ignited  a  nature  which 
wanted  hut,  opportunity  to  break  out  into  action,  and  enlist- 
ed a  man,  who  felt  assured  that  his  standard,  once  raised, 
would  bring  a  numerous  body  of  daring,  war-loving 
spirits  of  the  South  and  West  around  him.  Hence  spnlng 
those  two  marring  and  reprehensible1  incidents  of  his  life 
above  noticed,  namely,  his  complicity  with  (Tenet  in  his 
schemes,  and  then,  as  an  offshoot  therefrom,  his  Oconee 
irregularity.  For  it  would  be  the  sheerest  misnomer  to  call 
it  a  rebellion.  And  as  those  incidents  are  both  matters 
which  have  been  greatly  misunderstood  and  mishandled  to 
the  no  little  detriment  of  Gen.  Clark's  name,  a  name  dear 
to  Georgia  and  which  she  is  bound  ever  to  overwatch  and 
protect  with  grateful  guardianship,  I  purpose  by  a  faithful 
and  succinct  account  to  set  them  both  in  a  clear  and  true 
light. 

SECTION    II. 

Genet  was  the  first  envoy  to  the  United  States  from  regi- 
cide, Revolutionary  France.  Worthy  to  represent  such  a 
crew  as  Robespierre  and  the  Jacobins,  he  came  drunk,  with 
the  wild,  unschooled  spirit  of  liberty,  which  in  his  own 
country  was  then  newly  broken  loose  from  the  despotism  of 
ages  and  was  insanely  exultant  there  still  over  the  ruins  of 
an  old  and  the  chaos  of  a  new  order  of  things.  From  the 
moment  of  his  landing  on  our  shores,  he  showed  himself 
the  very  impersonation  of  diplomatic  fanaticism,  wrong- 
headedness  and  indecency,  and  entered  at  once  on  what  was 
evidently  a  predetermined  course  of  criminal,  urmeighborly 
intermeddling  and  agitation.  He  seemed  bent  on  signaliz- 
ing his  embassy  by  every  audacity  and  impropriety  that 
could  tend  to  throw  our  country  into  mad  excitement  and 
precipitate  it  as  an  accessory  into  the  fiery  whirlpool  of 
French  wars  and  quarrels.  How  successful  he  was  in  kind- 
ling the  flames  of  popular  fury  and  stirring  up  the  people 
against  their  own  Government  for  its  firm,  immovable  stand 
against  him  and  his  machinations,  forms  one  of  the  most 


174842 


38  GEN.    ELIJAII    CLARK. 

extraordinary  passages  in  American  history.  To  such 
height  did  things  get  that  the  elder  Adams  in  his  writings 
speaks  of  the  multitude  in  Philadelphia,  (which  had  now 
become  the  seat  of  the  General  Government)  as  ripe  for  de- 
throning Washington  himself'.* 

Genet  was  artful  as  well  as  bold  and  unscrupulous.  This 
he  evinced  clearly  from  the  moment  of  his  appointment. 
Sailing  from  France  in  a  ship  under  his  own  orders,  he  di- 
rected his  voyage  to  Charleston,  a  port  very  distant  from 
the  seat  of  Government,  and  after  landing  there  on  the  8th 
of  April,  1793,  and  tarrying  for  awhile,  busied  in  illicit, 
inflammatory  intrigues,  he  consumed  weeks,  devoted  to  simi- 
lar objects,  in  his  journey  from  thence  overland  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  he  arrived  on  the  16th  of  May,  and  whither  the 
news  of  his  evil  practices  had  long  preceded  him.f  No 
where,  however,  on  his  whole  route  dii  he  meet  with  greater 
encouragement  than  in  South  Carolina.  The  large,  very 
influential  French  Hugenot  element  in  the  lower  part  of 
that  State  responded  to  him  promptly  with  assurances  that 
went  beyond  mere  expressions  of  sympathy.  Indeed,  a 
strong  feeling  of  French  consanguinity  added  force  there  to 
the  universally  prevalent  sentiment  of  gratitude  to  France 
as  our  generous  Revolutionary  ally.  Hence  the  people's 
hearts  warmed  readily  to  his  appeals.  He  was  greatly  em- 
boldened. A  reckless  French  enthusiasm  that  had  already 
gotten  wide  hold  now  spread  and  grew  more  intense  in  all 
directions.  It  soon  crossed  the  Savannah  river.  And 
nowhere  either  in  or  out  of  Georgia  did  it  seize  upon  a  man 
more  ardently  prepared  to  be  carried  away  by  it  than  Gen. 
Clark.  For  all  his  feelings,  his  whole  nature  was  strong, 
and  with  all  his  strength  and  soul  he  sympathized  with 
France  in  her  struggle  for  liberty,  and  paid  back  with  every 
breath  what  he  felt  to  be  the  impayable  debt  of  love  and 
gratitude  his  country  owed  her,  for  her  aid  in  our  great 
Revolutionary  contest.  Genet  was  not  long  in  finding  him 


*Jna.  Mams'  Life  and  Writings,  Vol.  8,  279. 
^American  State  Papers,  For.  Re.  Vol.  I,  p.  167,  168. 


GEN.    ELIJAH    CLAUK.  39 

out  and  learning  all  about  him,  and  lie  eagerly-  pitched  upon 
him  as  a  man  eminently  suited  in  all  respects,  and  especially 
by  his  great  military  prestige  in  the  South,  to  become  tin- 
leader  in  the  military  operations  which  it  was  his  object  to 
set  on  foot  against  the  neighboring  Spanish  dominions,  and 
which  looked  to  nothing  less  than  the  seizure  of  the  Flori- 
das  and  reconquest  of  Louisiana  mainly  by  means  of  Amer- 
ican arms  seduced  to  that  illegal  service.  He  thought  that 
the  pending  war  between  France  and  Spain  and  the  French 
epidemic  now  pervading  the  United  States  presented  a  fine 
opportunity  for  this  purpose.  Particularly  was  his  heart  set 
on  the  recovery  of  Louisiana,  that  vast  region  the  loss  of 
which,  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  of  1T6;>,  had  never  ceased  to 
lie  bitterly  on  the  French  stomach.  Aside  from  the  zeal  for 
France  by  which  he  was  fired,  he  burned  with  the  personal 
ambition  and  thirsted  intensely  for  the  personal  glory  of 
exploiting  this  great  achievement  for  his  nation.  And  for 
the  chance  of  it,  he  hesitated  not  to  sacrifice  all  ambassa- 
dorial decorum,  as  well  as  to  outrage  our  country's  laws  and 
neutrality,  and  endanger  her  peaceful  relations  and  important 
pending  negotiations  with  Spain. 

This  last  consideration,  however,  was  far  from  being  any 
drawback  with  Gen.  Clark.  It  rather  impelled  than  deterred 
him.  Nothing  would  have  suited  him  better  than  war  with 
Spain.  For  he  hated  her  hardly  less  than  he  loved  France, 
and  he  felt  that  she  well  deserved  all  his  hatred  as  being 
already  and  for  years  past  the  venomous  enemy  of  the  United 
States,  and  especially  of  Georgia,  groundlessly,  as  he  thought, 
seeking  to  rob  her  of  a  vast  territory,  at  the  same  time 
meanly  screening  herself  behind  the  Indians  and  insidiously 
instigating  them  against  us.  It  was  his  deliberate  convic- 
tion that  in  taking  up  arms  against  her,  though  under 
French  colors,  he  was  acquitting  himself  patriotically  to  his 
own  country.  He  accordingly  refused  not  the  high  com- 
mand which  was  tendered  him.*  Commissions,  also,  for 

*  Both  Stevens  in  history  of  Georgia  and  White  in  his  statistics  tell  us  he 
was  commissioned  a  Major-General  in  the  French  service  with  a  pay  of  $  lo.no 


40  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

subordinate  officers  were  placed  in  his  hands  in  blank, — 
money  and  means  were  likewise  furnished  him,  though  in 
too  limited  an  amount  for  the  greatness  of  the  enterprise. 
His  authority  was  everywhere  recognized  by  the  adventurers 
whom  Genet,  his  agents  and  emissaries  succeeded  in  starting 
up  and  enlisting.  From  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  to  those  of 
the  Oconee  and  St.  Mary's,  his  orders  were  obeyed  in  the 
making  of  preparations  and  getting  up  armaments,  and  men 
thronged  from  both  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  to  his 
points  of  rendezvous  on  the  two  latter  streams,!  fired  at  once 
by  the  splendor  of  the  project  and  the  renown  of  the  leader. 
But  mark!  there  was  no  movement  whatever,  actual  or  con- 
templated, against  the  Indians  or  their  lands  either  within 
the  chartered  limits  of  Georgia  or  anywhere  else.  Nor  did 
the  Indians  manifest  any  hostility  towards  the  adventurers, 
trespassers,  though  they  were  on  their  hunting  grounds. 
For  it  seems  to  have  been  made  to  be  well  understood  by 
them  that  the  whole  aim  was  against  the  provinces  of  Spain, 
from  whom  the  Indians,  especially  in  parts  remote  from  the  I 
Spanish  border,  were  gradually  becoming  estranged  since 
the  treaty  of  New  York,  and  were  now  still  more  disposed 
to  be  weaned  when  they  were  told  there  was  a  prospect  of 
the  restoration  of  the  French  as  their  neighbors,  to  whom 
they  always  had  more  liking  than  either  to  the  Spaniards  or 
Anglo-Americans.  Indeed,  the  French  made  it  their  study 
to  cultivate  the  favor  of  the  Indians,  who  were  even  solicited 
to  join  in  the  enterprise.  In  every  way  it  was  sought  to 
make  fair  weather  with  them  with  a  view  to  the  march  of 
troops  through  their  country  on  the  proposed  errand  of 
Spanish  invasion,  while  other  forces  recruited  in  the  West 


per  annum  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  fact.  But  when  White  further  says 
that  he  was  solicited  by  two  great  European  powers  to  enter  their  service,  it  is 
giving  him  a  little  too  much  trans-Atlantic  military  renown.  The  story  is  a 
figment,  which,  like  the  statement  that  McGillivray  was  the  Indian  commander 
whom  Gen.  Clark  defeated  at  Jack's  Creek,  must  be  numbered  among  the 
pretty  fables,  parasitical  mistletoes,  that  are  perpetually  growing  out  upon  the 
sturdy  oak  of  history,  slowly  robbing  it  of  its  life  and  truth. 

American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  Vol.  1st,  pages  455,  458,  459,460. 


GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK.  41 

were  to  descend  the  Ohio  arid  Mississippi  in  boats  to  meet 
and  cooperate  with  the  French  squadron  that  was  held  out 
as  expected  to  come  to  their  aid  by  sea.* 

But  all  this  elaborate  scheming  and  ado  ended  in  total 
failure,  never  ripening  into  such  action  as  was  contemplated, 
— never  reaching  the  stage  at  which  General  Clark  was  to 
stand  forth,  truncheon  in  hand,  conspicuous  and  avowed  as. 
the  leader  of  the  enterprise.  Washington's  administration 
was  too  strong,  vigilant  and  active  for  Genet  and  the  French 
party.  Our  obligations  of  neutrality  toward  Spain  were 
fully  maintained,  and  all  attempts  against  her  within  our 
bounds  were  effectually  suppressed.  The  most  decided  steps 
were  taken  against  Genet  personally.  His  recall  was  de- 
manded, and  every  proper  means  used  to  impair  in  the  mean- 
while his  ability  for  mischief.  But  soon  his  actual  recall 
and  the  coming  of  his  successor,  the  citizen  Fauchet,  in  the 
Spring  of  1794,  broke  down  his  influence  and  dashed  all  the 
plans  arid  prospects  of  those  who  had  become  connected  with 
him.  The  consequences  were  disastrous  to  Gen.  Clark.  He 
was  left  standing  blank,  resourceless,  aimless,  in  the  wilder- 
ness, with  a  few  troops  here  and  there  on  the  Indian  side  of 
the  line,  whom  the  power  of  his  name  had  brought  together, 
but  whose  destined  field  of  employment  was  now  abruptly 
taken  away.  There  they  were  on  his  hands,  awaiting  his 
orders  and  expecting  the  fulfillment  of  his  promises,  and 
the  desperate  fortunes  and  wreckless  character  of  most  of 
them  strongly  appealed  to  him  to  engage  them  in  some 
other  career  in  lieu  of  that  just  closed  against  them,  even 
though  it  should  be  one  still  more  irregular  and  exception- 
able. 

It  was  under  these  untoward  circumstances  consequent  on 
the  sudden  wreck  and  abandonment,  in  the  South  at  least, 
of  the  Genet  scheme,  that  Gen.  Clark  and  his  men  in  May, 
1794,  began  to  turn  their  thoughts  upon  the  Indian  territory 


*  Picket  fs  History  of  Alabama,    Vol.  2,  p.  lf/2,  153  ;    Foreign  Relations,    Vol. 
I.  455,  •!•">*,  -I-)'.). 


42  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

where  already  they  saw  themselves  quartered  in  arms.  Nor 
did  they  think  long  before  they  took  the  overstrong  resolu- 
tion of  seizing  upon  the  country  and  setting  up  for  them- 
selves there,  with  an  independent  Government  of  their  own 
creation, — the  rich  Indian  lands  being  the  tempting  prize 
011  which  they  relied  to  attract  the  needful  men  and  means  to 
their  standard.  In  taking  this  step  they  were  sensible  of  no 
patriotic  scruples  or  impediments  ;  for,  to  a  man,  they 
regarded  the  country  as  already  lost  to  Georgia  by  the  per- 
petual national  guarantee  that  had  in  the  New  York  treaty 
been  made  of  it  to  her  Indian  enemies,  and  by  the  State's 
seemingly  settled  acquiescense  in  that  guarantee.  Thus 
acquitted  to  their  own  minds,  they  proceeded  gravely  and 
with  all  due  form  in  their  new  movement  of  government- 
making,  unabashed  by  the  contrast  between  the  grandeur  of 
the  thing  they  were  attempting,  and  the  pettiness  of  their 
numbers  and  resources.  A  written  constitution  was  adopted; 
Gen.  Clark  was  chosen  civil  and  military  chief,  and  the 
members  of  a  body  politic  under  the  name  of  '/The  Com- 
mittee of  Safety"  were  chosen  to  exercise  along  with  him  law- 
making  and  other  sovereign  functions.  Whether  any  name, 
or  what  name  was  bestowed  on  the  infant  State,  or  whether 
it  expired  without  baptism,  no  record  or  tradition  remains 
to  tell.  Nor  is  there  any  copy  of  the  Constitution  now  to 
be  found.  But  in  the  1st  volume  of  the  American  State 
Papers,  on  Indian  Affairs,  there  is  preserved  a  letter  of  Gen. 
Clark's,  to  the  Committee  of  Safety,  dated  at  Fort  Advance, 
the  5th  day  of  September,  1794,  which  places  beyond  doubt, 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  the  other  facts  of 
organization  as  above  stated.* 

Thus  ended  Gen.  Clark's  connection  with  Genet's  project 
for  the  invasion  of  the  Spanish  provinces  ;  and  thus  it 
became  changed  into  a  suddenly  conceived  scheme  of  seizing 
on  the  Indian  lands,  on  which  he  found  himself  quartered, 
and  erecting  there  a  new  trans-Oconee  State  of  his  own  and 

*Jlmerican  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  \,pp.  500-501. 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  43 

his  men's.  It  is  clear  that  in  pursuing  this  course  he  acted 
under  strong  duress.  The  French  impulse  arid  support  un- 
der which  he  had  thus  far  been  proceeding,  had  all  at  once 
failed  him  ;  French  means,  to  which  he  had  all  along  heen 
beholden,  had  stopped  and  were  no  longer  at  his  bidding. 
Consequently,  French  ends  could  no  longer  be  consulted  by 
him,  and  the  new  turn  he  gave  to  things,  far  from  being  a 
wanton,  was  a  logical  conduct  on  his  part.  It  was  the  nat- 
ural glancing  in  a  new  and  unintended  direction  of  a  ball 
that  had  been  otherwise  launched  at  first,  but  which  by  an 
intervening  obstacle  had  been  thwarted  and  turned  from  its 
original  aim  towards  another  object. 

The  development  which  has  now  been  given  of  the  course 
and  ending  of  the  Genet  affair  in  the  South  and  of  the 
springing  up  of  the  so  called  Oconee  rebellion  therefrom,  shows 
how  widely  both  those  matters  are  misunderstood  and  mis- 
told  in  Stevens'  History  of  Georgia.  In  that  work  the  facts 
are  strangely  transposed  and  misarranged.  The  Oconee 
affair  is  related  as  having  preceded  and  led  to  Gen.  Clark's 
engaging  in  the  French  project,  and  this  French  project  is 
set  forth  not  as  having  given  birth  to  the  Oconee  attempt, 
but  as  having  been  itself  a  misborn,  profligate  offspring 
therefrom.*  Such  dislocation  and  misplacement  of  facts  is 
tantamount  in  the  effect  to  gross  misstatement  and  works 
not  less  wrong  to  Gen.  Clark  than  to  chronology.  For  al- 
though he  cannot  be  pronounced  free  from  blame  for  his 
connection  with  those  affairs,  yet  the  difference  is  vast  in 
every  point  of  view,  moral,  political,  patriotic,  between  his 
having  become  involved  in  them  in  the  manner  I  have  de- 
tailed, and  that  charged  by  the  historian,  who  represents  the 
Oconee  part  of  his  conduct  as  an  orignal,  wanton  aggression 
upon  Indian  rights  and  territory,  carrying  with  it  rebellion 
towards  Georgia  and  the  United  States,  and  the  French  part 
of  it  as  a  lawless,  fillibustering  enterprise,  into  which  he 
had  desperately  flung  himself  after  his  character,  fortunes 

•Stevens'  History  of  Georgia,  Vol.  2,  .  p440,  405,  406. 


, — 

44  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

and   prospects  had  been    already  deeply  damaged   by    tbe 
Oconee  criminality. 

A  very  little  attention  to  dates  and  the  actual  order  of 
events  would  have  prevented  this  harsh,  wrong  treatment 
of  Gen.  Clark.  Let  us  see:  Genet  arrived  in  this  country 
in  the  Spring  of  1793.  He  commenced  his  intrigues  imme- 
diately, and  it  was  not  long  before  we  find  Gen.  Clark  con- 
nected with  him,  busied  in  fitting  out  and  freighting  boats 
on  the  Ohio  with  warlike  stores,  in  receiving  and  dispensing 
French  fuffds  and  commissions,  and  concentrating  armed 
men  under  the  name  of  the  French  Legion  beyond  the  Alta- 
maha  and  Oconee  on  Indian  soil ;  the  same  being  also 
claimed  as  foreign  soil,  in  order  to  give  a  pretext  for  saying 
that  the  preparations  there  made  were  no  violation  of 
the  territory  and  neutrality  of  the  United  States.*  Now 
towards  these  lawless  doings  the  authorities  and  people 
of  Georgia  evinced  no  displeasure  for  many  months, — 
none,  indeed,  so  long  as  they  wore  only  a  French  charac- 
ter and  were  marked  by  only  a  French  destination  against 
the  Spanish  provinces.  But  when,  upon  the  miscarriage  of 
the  Genet  project  in  1794,  that  character  and  destination 
were  exchanged  for  an  aggressive  seizure  of  Georgia's  In- 
dian territory, — then  for  the  first  time  popular  feeling  began 
to  rise  against  Gen.  Clark.  Gov.  Matthews  began  then  to 
see  there  was  something  wrong  in  his  proceedings,  and  be- 
thought himself  of  interfering  and  of  denouncing  and  ar- 
resting what  he  was  doing.  The  result  was  that  before  the 
end  of  autumn  the  whole  Oconee  scheme  was  crushed  by  the 
arm  of  Georgia,  prompted  and  upheld  by  Washington,  as 
the  French  Genet  scheme  had  monthvS  before  been  defeated 
by  the  arm  of  Washington  alone. 

And  then  upon  the  back  of  all  and  as  a  clinching  disproof 
if  any  were  needed,  comes  the  insuperable,  silencing  fact  of 
the  poverty  of  Gen.  Clark  and  his  Oconee  adherents.  It  is 
notorious  that  they  were  poor,  (as  indeed  were  the  people  of 
Georgia  generally  at  that  day,  though  far  less  so  than  now) 

*  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  Vol.  1 ,  p.  311. 


(ii:\.   ELIJAH    CLARK.  45 

altogether  too  poor  to  have  made  it  possible  for  him  and  his 
followers  and  supporters  ever  to  have  set  on  foot  by  any 
means  of  their  own  such  an  enterprise  as  this  wa.s  ;  an  enter- 
prise involving  from  the  outset  an  Indian  war  and  a  heavy 
outlav.  Whence  it  is  apparent  from  the  very  impossibility 
of  the  thing,  that  it  would  not  have  been  started  at  all  but 
for  the  French  means  and  preparations  that  were  on  hand 
for  another  very  different  purpose,  and  which,  upon  the 
failure  of  that  purpose,  were  readily  convertible  to  this  new 
object. 

Having  set  forth  thus  fully  the  manner  of  Gen.  Clark's 
becoming  involved  in  these,  the  only  reprehensible  affairs  of 
his  life,  we  feel  warranted  in  pronouncing  it  such  as  must 
greatly  soften  censure,  and  conciliate  kindly  feelings  towards 
him.  And  more  especially  in  relation  to  that  part  of  his 
conduct  in  which  he  was  implicated  with  Genet  and  his 
schemes,  may  it  be  claimed  that  the  bare  statement  of  the 
facts  is  all  that  his  case  needs.  To  add  any  elaborate  apology 
and  vindication  would  be  idle  and  supererogatory.  For  in 
that  whole  matter  he  but  acted  in  sympathy  and  accordance 
with  a  powerful  and  certainly  not  discreditable  national  feel- 
ing of  his  day  ;  a  feeling  fiercely  inflamed  against  despotism 
and  in  favor  of  liberty  and  France.  And  into  whatever 
of  mistake  or  fault  he  and  his  abetting  countrymen  may 
have  fallen,  it  was  error  rather  of  degree  than  of  principle. 
The  undue  lengths  to  which  they  allowed  themselves  to  be 
transported  were  but  the  pardonable  result  of  the  over- 
ardent  French  enthusiasm  then  prevalent,  and  have  long 
since  been  condoned  by  the  freedom-loving  part  of  mankind 
as  belonging  to  that  class  of  things  in  which,  although 
Governments  are  obliged  to  frown  and  fulminate,  yet  history 
and  opinion  delight  to  be  gracious  and  hasten  to  acquit, 
propitiated  by  the  nobleness  and  magnanimity  of  which 
they  savor  and  which  shed  a  tinge  of  honor  on  human 
nature  even  in  its  lapses  and  misdeeds. 


46  '      GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

SECTION    III. 

But  as  no  such  proud  palliation,  closely  akin  to  praise 
itself,  can  be  pleaded  for  his  Oconee  doings,  it  behooves  us 
to  give  them  some  further  attention,  from  whence  it  will  be 
seen  that  his  memory  so  far  from  suffering  by  a  strict  scru- 
tiny here  will,  on  the  contrary,  come  out  therefrom  cleared 
of  much  of  obloquy  and  misconception, — cleared  sufficiently 
at  least  to  save  from  historic  blight  the  rich  wreath  of  honor, 
fame  and  public  gratitude  with  which  a  life  of  heroic,  self- 
sacrificing  services  to  his  country  had  entwined  his  brow. 

I  will  not  here  insist  again  on  the  casual  and  almost  coer- 
cive, involuntary  manner  in  which  he  was  led  into  that 
Oconee  fault.  Enough  has  been  said  on  that  topic — enough 
to  show  that  the  way  and  manner  were  such  as  greatly  to 
lighten  whatever  blame  there  was.  But  somewhat  else  re- 
mains that  makes  in  his  favor;  other  facts  and  considerations 
there  are  which,  although  perhaps  only  apologetic  in  their 
nature,  nevertheless  weigh  strongly  for  him.  Let  us  look 
at  them  as  they  have  come  down  to  us  and  in  the  light  of 
the  times  in  which  they  occurred,  rather  than  in  the  altered 
hue  which  the  changing  circumstances  and  opinions  of  four- 
score years  may  have  imparted  to  them. 

Then,  as  we  have  already  shown  in  the  preceding  articles, 
violent  animosity  had  long  prevailed  between  the  Creek  In- 
dians and  Georgia.  They  became  during  the  Revolutionary 
war  our  bitter  enemies  and  the  allies  of  the  British.  Van- 
quished in  that  great  conflict,  they  entered  at  its  close  into 
a  treaty  of  peace,  friendship  and  territorial  cession  with  us 
at  Augusta  in  1783,  whereby  we  became  the  absolute  owners 
of  the  Oconee  country,  which,  however,  we  were  not  allowed 
to  enjoy  in  peace.  For  they  kept  no  faith,  and  during  the 
very  next  year,  not  only  raised  the  warwhoop  again,  but 
rushed  into  a  Spanish  alliance  in  order  to  strengthen  them- 
selves in  their  hostilities.  Further,  also,  we  have  seen 
that  in  the  course  of  another  year  they  composed  this  war 
by  entering  into  another  treaty,  that  of  Galphinton,  by 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  47 

which  another  large  cession  of  land  being  made,  the  Tallas- 
see  country  became  ours.  Both  at  Augusta  and  Galphinton 
General  Clark  was  one  of  the  commissioners  on  the  part  of 
the  State,  and  as  such  was  a  negotiator  and  signer  of  both 
these  highly  important  treaties.  In  seeking  and  obtaining 
the  Tallassee  cession,  he  and  our  other  leading  men  who 
cooperated  with  him,  were  less  actuated  by  the  prevailing 
land-greed  of  that  period  than  by  a  sagacious  statemanship , 
that  looked  to  the  means  of  a  permanent  preservation  of 
peace  with  the  Indians,  which  they  knew  could  only  be 
effected  by  cutting  them  off  by  a  wide  interval  of  territory, 
from  Spanish  neighborhood  and  instigation.  Long  after- 
wards, at  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson  in  1814,  Gen.  Jackson 
avowed  himself  governed  by  precisely  the  same  policy  in 
forcing  the  conquered  Creeks  to  surrender  a  wide  strip  em- 
bracing this  very  Tallassee  region,  and  stretching  from 
Wayne  and  Camden  counties  to  the  Chattahoochee,  all  along 
the  line  of  what  was  then  still  the  Spanish  province  of  East 
Florida.  But  that  very  policy  of  isolation  from  Spanish  in- 
fluence which  Gen.  Clark  and  all  Georgia  had  so  much  at 
heart  in  1785,  and  which  made  the  Tallassee  cession  so  im- 
portant in  their  eyes,  rendered  it  at  the  same  time  extremely 
obnoxious  to  the  Spaniards,  who  consequently  exerted  their 
influence  to  make  it  odious  to  the  Indians  and  to  stimulate 
them  to  fiercer  warfare  than  ever  against  us,  indeed,  to  make 
it  impossible  there  ever  should  be  peace  without  the  retro- 
cession of  that  country.  And  so,  notwithstanding  the  Gal- 
phinton treaty,  and  yet  another  hollow  peace  signed  at 
Shoulderbone  in  November,  1786,  the  war  ceased  not,  but 
was  continued  and  kept  up  by  the  Indians  with  a  virulence 
that  prevented  even  any  attempt  at  pacification  from  being 
at  any  time  afterwards  made  between  them  and  the 
Georgians. 

In  this  state  things  were  when  the  new  Government  of 
the  United  States  was  first  launched  in  1789,  and  Washing- 
ton was  called  to  the  helm.  His  attention  was  very 
soon  claimed  by  this  war,  On  the  6th  of  the  ensuing  July, 


48  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

in  a  report  made  to  him  by  his  Secretary  of  War,  Gen. 
Knox,  it  is  emphatically  noticed  as  <la  serious  war  in  which 
Georgia  was  engaged  with  the  Creek  Indians,  that  might 
become  so  combined  and  extended  as  to  require  the  interfer-  < 
erice  of  the  United  State's."*  Up  to  this  period  all  affairs 
whether  of  peace  or  war,  and  all  treaties  and  negotiations 
Avith  the  Creek  nation  had  been,  under  the  old  Confederation, 
left  almost  wholly  to  be  managed  by  Georgia  as  a  sort  of 
peculiicm  of  her's — and  the  rather  because  all  of  that  tribe 
to  be  found  within  the  United  States  were  located  on  the 
chartered  soil  of  Georgia.  But  all  this  pectdium  of  the 
State  was  now  at  an  end.  It  terminated  by  the  new  national 
Government  assuming  to  itself  an  exclusive  and  unlimited 
control  over  all  Indian  affairs  and  Indian  territory,  whether 
within  a  State's  chartered  limits  or  not.  This  it  did  under 
its  war-making,  its  treaty-making  and  its  commerce  regula- 
ting powers,  and  by  a  stretch  in  construing  the  same,  to 
which  the  people  of  Georgia  never  became  heartily  recon- 
ciled, but  again  and  again  protested  against  it  by  both 
word  and  deed  as  long  as  any  Indian  occupancy  existed 
within  her  limits.  The  men  that  witnessed  arid  took  part 
in  the  bitter,  fearful  quarreling  that  grew  up  eventually  out 
of  this  question  of  power  over  Indian  matters,  and  at  length 
got  to  be  chronic  between  the  State  and  the  general  Govern- 
ment, are  now  nearly  all  gone.  But  as  long  as  any  of  them 
shall  live,  it  will  not  be  forgotten  how  intensely  General 
Clark's  sentiments  oa  the  subject  continued  to  be  cherished 
in  Georgia  for  more  than  thirty  years  after  his  death,  nor 
will  there  be  any  lack  of  a  feeling  of  indulgence  towards 
him  in  regard  to  the  errors  of  conduct  into  which  those 
principles  largely  helped  to  hurry  him. 

This  full  transference  of  the  whole  Indian  jurisdiction 
into  Federal  hands  was  practically  exemplified  in  the  length 
to  which  the  oft-mentioned  treaty  of  New  York  went,  buy- 
ing, as  it  did  from  the  Creek  Indians,  a  promise  of  peace 

*  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  },)>.   15. 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLAKK.  49 

at  the  price  of  the  retrocession  of  Tallassee  and  of  a  perpet- 
ual guarantee  to  them  by  the  United  States  of  all  their  ter- 
ritory, regardless  of  the  paramount  rights  arid  sovereignty 
of  Georgia. 

And  yet  high  as  was  the  price  thus  paid  to  the  Indians 
for  their  promise  of  peace,  that  promise  was  not  kept.  The 
better  and  more  informed  among  the  chiefs  and  warriors 
were,  it  is  true,  disposed  to  keep  it,  but  they  were  unable 
to  restrain  another  and  a  very  large  portion  of  their  people 
who,  instigated  by  the  Spaniards,  and  dissatisfied  with  the 
treaty  of  New  York,  because  it  did  not  contain  all  the  eon- 
cessions  they  wanted,  persisted  in  their  hostile  incursions 
and  depredations,  on  our  exposed  frontier. 

Such,  then,  was  the  posture,  in  which  the  war  of  the 
Greeks  against  Georgia  stood  and  presented  itself  to  the 
view  of  Gen.  Clark  in  17(J4,  when  the  sudden  foundering  of 
the  Genet  scheme  left  him  on  their  soil  in  the  very  embar- 
rassing and  difficult  situation  which  we  have  above  described; 
and  such  the  circumstances  under  which  he  felt  that  he 
would  be  guilty  of  no  wrong  towards  these  savages  in  treat- 
ing them  as  enemies  and  turning  his  arms  against  them  as 
such,  since  they  were  still  every  now  and  then  reeking  their 
hostilities  on  Georgia  in  spite  of  so  many  treaties  of  peace, 
that  of  New  York  among  the  rest.  Nor  did  he  feel,  either, 
that  he  was  at  all  criminal  towards  the  United  States  in  so 
doing,  inasmuch  as  he  was  simply  disregarding  and  seek- 
ing to  force  to  a  proper  test  things,  which  he  fully  believed 
to  be  unconstitutional  in  that  treaty  and  in  the  Congres- 
sional legislation  by  which  it  was  supported,  namely,  the 
retrocession  and  perpetual  guarantee  provisions  which  it  con- 
tained. And  still  less  did  it  seem  to  him  that  Georgia  had 
any  right  to  be  angry  at  what  he  was  doing,  for  the  reason 
that  by  submitting  to  those  injurious  treaty  provisions,  she 
had  in  principle  and  in  fact  surrendered  her  territorial  rights 
and  sovereignty,  and  thereby  not  only  abased  herself, 
but  despoiled  her  citizens  of  their  great  landed  birthright, 
and  consequently  was  no  longer  entitled  to  denounce  such 


50  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLAKK. 

of  them  as  should  choose  to  cut  loose  from  her,  aud  by  their 
own  strength  and  daring-  occupy  the  fair  regions  of  which 
she  had  allowed  herself  to  he  so  unconstitutionally  stripped 
and  disseized  in  favor  of  her  savage  enemies. 

It  was  these  views  strongly  entertained  that,  added  to 
the  pressure  of  the  peculiar  and  untoward  circumstances  in 
which  he  found  himself  suddenly  placed,  turned  the  scale 
with  General  Clark,  and  determined  him  to  a  conduct  he 
had  not  previously  contemplated,  namely,  that  of  raising 
provisionally  and  temporarily  the  standard  of  private,  mili- 
tary adventure,  for  the  conquest  of  the  Creek  lands  as  prize 
of  war  to  himself  and  followers  ;  flattering  himself  that 
the  Government,  State  and  Federal,  having  been  seemingly 
supine  in  regard  to  his  part  in  the  Genet  operations,  would 
continue  supine  still,  and  that  his  fellow  citizens,  of  whose 
general  sympathy  he  had  no  doubt,  would  not  only  not  take 
part  against  him  but  would  rally  to  him  in  sufficient  force 
of  men  and  means  to  insure  his  success. 

But  he  was  doomed  to  utter  disappointment.  He  had 
erred  egregiously  as  to  the  manner  in  which  his  enterprise 
would  be  regarded  and  treated.  Both  as  to  the  supineness 
of  Government  and  the  support  of  the  people  he  had  calcu- 
lated amiss,  and  awoke  to  the  discovery  that  war  even 
against  savages  was  a  royal  game  sacred  to  sovereigns  and 
their  subalterns,  and  that  the  people,  ever  jealous  of  their 
rights  of  property  at  least,  and  ravenous  of  broad,  rich  acres, 
will  not  tamely  permit  lands  they  have  been  wont  to  con- 
sider as  their  own  and  their  children's  forever,  to  be  ravish- 
ed away  by  the  sword  of  any  adventurer,  however  beloved 
and  honored  he  may  have  been.  The  consequence  was  that 
Gen.  Clark  was  speedily  overwhelmed  by  heavy  public  cen- 
sure and  total  discomfiture.  The  national  and  State  admin- 
istrations acted  in  concert  against  him  and  soon  put  him 
down.  Washington,  wisely  holding  back,  as  was  his  wont, 
the  heavy  Federal  arm  wherever  the  authorities  of  the 
States  were  faithful  and  adequate  to  the  suppression  of  dis- 
orders within  their  own  bounds,  acted  only  as  the  prompter 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  51 

of  Gov.  Matthews  in  this  matter,  who,  with  his  Revolutionary 
laurels  still  green,  soon  to  be  tarnished,,  however,  by  theYazno 
infamy,  was  now  honorably  filling  his  second  term  in  the 
Executive  Chair.  The  Governor  thundered  out  upon  the  ob- 
noxious General,  in  a  proclamation  of  the  28th  of  July,  1794, 
in  which  he  denounces  him  under  the  name  of  Elijah  Clark, 
Esquire,  as  a  violator  of  the  laws  and  of  the  Indian  terri- 
tory. Judge  Walton  also  came  out  strongly  against  him, 
though  in  language  of  marked  consideration  and  respect,  in 
j  his  charges  to  grand  juries.*  But  fulminations  of  this  kind 
turned  out  to  be  inadequate  to  the  case,  though  they  had 
a  good  conservative  effect  on  the  public  mind.  The  next 
step  was  decisive.  The  citizen  soldiery  were  called  out,  and 
to  General  Clark's  surprise,  and  utter  extinguishment  of  his 
hopes,  (for  he  had  flattered  himself  that  they  could  not  be 
gotten  to  march  against  him)  they  promptly  obeyed  the 
order.  As  the  storm  thickened  around  him  and  his  pros- 
pects darkened,  there  were  none  that  came  to  his  succor. 
Even  his  host  of  friends  in  Georgia,  devoted  to  him  as  they 
were  personally,  stood  aloof  and  quietly  witnessed  his 
fall,  sad  and  sanctioning.  What  an  impressive  proof  that 
the  great  body  of  our  people  were  even  in  that  early,  fron- 
tier state  of  society,  a  truly  orderly,  loyal,  law  abiding  peo- 
ple. They  might,  indeed,  have  been  too  ready  perhaps  to 
seize  upon  the  Creek  lands  with  little  or  no  tenderness  for 
Indian  rights,  provided  only  it  was  done  under  regular 
governmental  authority,  and  with  assurance  that  the  lands 
would  be  made  to  enure  to  the  enrichment  of  them  and  their 
children  and  to  the  public  good.  But  they  were  resolutely 
averse  to  any  scheme  of  acquisition  not  strictly  as  a  public 
measure  by  public  means  and  on  public  account,  and  the 
more  were  they  opposed  to  the  proceeding  attempted  in  this 
instance,  because  it  was  in  the  very  teeth  of  a  treaty  made 
by  Washington  himself  with  the  Indians,  and  which  how 
muchsoever  disliked  and  regretted  by  the  State,  she,  in  her 
sovereign  capacity  was,  nevertheless,  treating  with  a  wise 

*  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  I,  p.  497,  498,  499. 


52  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

and  patriotic,  though  reluctant  obedience  and  respect,  and 
consequently  could  not  and  would  not  countenance  indi- 
viduals even  the  most  exalted  in  violating  it. 

It  redounds  to  Gen.  Clark's  honor  and  atones  not  a  little 
for  whatever  was  wrong  in  his  conduct,  that  no  sooner  was 
he  aware  in  what  a  great  error  he  had  hecome  entangled, 
and  how  impracticable  a  thing  he  had  undertaken,  than  he 
abandoned  it  ere  he  had  done  any  appreciable  mischief  or 
shed  a  drop  of  even  Indian  blood.  Hence  his  movement 
turned  out  to  be  a  shortlived  affair  of  a  few  months  only. 
It  is,  indeed,  beyond  doubt  that  he  never  for  a  moment  har- 
bored the  thought  of  raising  his  hand  against  any  but  the 
already  hostile  Indians  and  their  Spanish  abettors,  whom 
he  might  chance  to  encounter.  This  explains  the  ready, 
absolute  submission,  with  which,  on  being  assured  that  he 
and  his  men  would  be  allowed  to  go  unmolested,  he  at  length 
struck  his  colors,  disbanded  his  followers,  and  returned 
chagrined  to  his  home  in  Wilkes  county,  on  the  approach 
of  Generals  Twiggs  and  Irwin,  under  the  Governor's  orders, 
with  a  body  of  the  State  militia  against  him.  His  proud, 
courageous,  magisterial  nature,  that  ever  exulted  in  facing- 
danger  and  grappling  with  it,  refused  not  now  to  calm  down 
and  humble  itself  at  the  bidding  and  in  the  presence  of  his 
beloved  Georgia  in  arms, — choosing  rather  to  succumb  to 
her  than  fight  his  countrymen,  from  whom  he  had  expected 
sympathy  and  support,  not  opposition  and  resistance.  His 
several  posts  were  abandoned.  The  torch  soon  followed* 
and  its  traces  were  long  to  be  seen.  But  now,  I  ween,  there 
is  a  many  a  dweller  along  the  storied  Oconee  who  never  even 
heard  of  Fort  Advance  or  Fort  Defiance,  and  the  other  less 
noted  warlike  coverts  that  of  yore  for  one  whole  summer  and 
far  into  the  first  autumnal  month,  scowled  on  the  impassive, 
race-dividing  stream,  and  frowned  trebly  from  its  western 
bank  on  Georgia,  the  Indians  and  the  general  Government. 


*  American  State  Papers.  Indian  Jffairs,  Vol.  l?t,page  49t»;  Stevens1  History 
of  Georgia,  Vol.  2,  p.  404. 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  53 

SECTION  IV. 

I3ilt  rising  abote  all  other  considerations  in  estimating  the 
hearing  of  this  matter  on  Gen.  Clark's  fame,  comes  the  cru- 
cial question,  what  was  his  mind  and  intention,  Avhat  the 
real,  ulterior  object  he  had  in  view?  Was  it,  at  bottom, 
good  or  bad,  patriotic  or  unpatriotic?  There  is,  I  believe, 
nothing  on  record,  or  coming  down  to  us  by  tradition, 
that  furnishes  an  answer  in  terms  to  these  questions.  But 
there  is  enough  in  the  known  facts  of  the  case,  and  in  the 
whole  of  Gen.  Clark's  character  and  career,  from  which  a 
satisfactory  answer  may  be  educed. 

In  order  then  to  a  right  answer,  it  must  be  remem- 
i  bered  that  Gen.  Clark  was  not  only  a  superior  military  man 
I  and  a  most  ardent  patriot,  but  also  that  he  had  in  him  no 
little  of  the  statesman  and  political  strategist,  such  particu- 
larly as  was  suited  to  the  circumstances  and  times  and  the 
theatre  in  which  he  had  to  act: — A  fact  evinced  by  the  lead- 
ing part  he  took  from  and  after  the  Revolutionary  war  at 
Augusta,  Galphinton,  Shoulderbone  and  elsewhere,  in  and 
about  councils,  negotiations  and  treaties  touching  Indian 
affairs,  (which  were  then  by  far  the  greatest,  most  difficult 
and  trying  branch  of  our  political  affairs,)  in  all  of  which  he 
showed  himself  hardly  less  apt  and  efficient  than  in  com- 
manding armed  men,  fighting  battles  and  conducting  cam- 
paigns. To  him  it  was  painfully  clear  that  Georgia,  with 
the  Oconee  river  as  a  permanent  guaranteed  boundary  be- 
tween herself  and  the  Indians,  could  never  attain  to  much 
prosperity  and  importance,  but  must  always  continue  feeble 
and  poor,  with  but  little  rank  in  the  sisterhood  of  States  in 
which  she  was  embraced,  and  still  less  security  against  the 
formidable  Indian  hordes  by  which  she  was  surrounded  on 
every  side,  except  along  the  Atlantic  and  the  Savannah 
river.  He  had  an  intense  conviction  that  the  paramount 
point  in  her  policy  to  which  her  attention  should  be  directed, 
was  her  enlargement  towards  the  West,  over  those  fine  re- 
gions forming  at  this  time  the  heart  of  what  is  called  Mid- 
dle Georgia,  and  which,  on  being  settled  and  becoming 


54  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

populous  and  powerful,  would  form  barriers  deterring  Indian 
hostilities  and  incursions,  instead  of  being  tempting  fields  for 
them,  as  long,  feeble  lines  of  frontier,  always  were. 

This  strong  conviction  was,  beyond  doubt,  an  influential 
element  in  impelling  him  in  the  spring  of  1*794,  to  seize  the 
opportunity  which  then  courted  him,  of  making  himself 
master  of  the  trans-Oconee  country  by  means  of  the  French 
resources  and  preparations  to  which  he  had  fallen  heir.  Fully 
believing  that  no  considerations  of  patriotism  forbade,  on 
the  contrary,  that  they  warranted  him  in  such  a  step,  he 
hesitated  not  to  make  avail  of  his  French  means,  and' his 
unpleasa'nt  predicament  on  Indian  soil,  to  create  an  Indian 
crisis  that  would  either  force  a  cession  or  end  in  a  conquest. 
The  government  which  for  this  purpose  he  extemporised  and 
which  he  could,  surely,  not  have  intended  i'or  a  permanency, 
pretended  to  only  such  faculties  as  might  enable  it  to  succeed 
in  attracting  by  its  promises  and  protecting  by  its  arms  and 
arrangements,  the  adventurers  and  settlers  who  were  indis- 
pensable to  his  plans,  and  to  whom  the  great  inducement  to 
join  his  standard  was  to  be,  as  in  old  feudal  times,  liberal 
allotments  of  land, — the  most  effective  device  ever  yet  tried 
of  inflaming  to  the  utmost  the  rage  of  conquest.  Such  is  a 
broad  outline  of  the  vision  which  all  the  circumstances  indi- 
cate as  having  floated  in  Gen.  Clark's  mind,  terminating  in 
his  thoughts  in  the  eventual  re-absorption  of  himself  and  his 
followers  back  again  into  the  bosom  of  Georgia,  with  all 
their  fair  lands  and  brave  acquisitions.  That  somewhat  of 
this  nature  was  the  upshot,  the  aim  and  end  he  contempla- 
ted is,  in  the  highest  degree,  probable.  His  character  and 
all  that  throws  any  light  upon  his  intentions,  point  that 
way.  Indeed  what  other  course  could  there  have  finally 
been  for  him?  None,  certainly,  unless  we  can  suppose  he 
intended  to  reproduce,  under  circumstances  most  unfavora- 
ble, that  recent  abortion,  the  State  of  Franklin,  with  whose 
throes  of  ill  success  and  ultimate  total  failure,  he  was  too 
well  acquainted  to  be  in  any  danger  of  being  tempted  to 
engage  in  any  similar  experiment. 


(JEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  55 

On  the  whole  then,  we  rest  in  the  conclusion  that  nothing 
could  he  more  wrong  than  to  treat  this  Oconee  error  as  a 
misdemeanor  against  patriotism,  or  as  detracting  seriously 
from  a  great  public  deserver's  claims  to  he  cherished  and 
honored  by  his  countrymen.  Indeed,  it  was  an  error 
founded  no  little  in  Gen.  Clark's  extreme  love  of  Georgia, 
and  his  resentment  of  what  he  deemed  a  great  injury  to  her, 
although  its  main  cause  undoubtedly  was  the  very  difficult, 
embarrassing  situation,  in  which  he  was  involved,  and  to 
which  we  have  so  fully  adverted.  No  thought  of  rebellion, 
no  sentiment  of  disloyalty  ever  entered  his  breast.  Although 
throwing  himself  decidedly,  as  he  did,  in  collision  at  once 
with  the  United  States  and  Georgia,  yet  his  eventual  action 
showed  that  his  design  was  nothing  more  nor  worse  than  to 
exert  a  right  undeniable  to  every  citizen,  whilst  certainly  it 
is  one  only  to  be  exercised  upon  great  consideration  and 
with  a  deep  conscientious  sense  of  responsibility, — the  right, 
namely,  of  disregarding  and  taking  issue  upon  and  bring- 
ing to  thet.est  any  unconstitutional  law  or  treaty, — especially 
when  having  a  tendency  so  formidable  as  that  of  planting 
permanently  on  the  chartered  soil  of  the  State  a  powerful 
savage  nation  under  the  pupilage  and  protection  of  the  gen- 
eral Government.  Such  was  the  principle  on  which  Gen. 
Clark  acted,  fully  acknowledging  at  the  same  time  his 
amenability  to  the  tribunals  of  the  land  and  to  the  interdic- 
tion of  the  public  will.  Hence,  no  sooner  did  Governor 
Mathews  issue  his  proclamation  against  him,  than  he  reap- 
peared in  Wilkes  county  and  surrendered  himself  to  the 
judicial  authorities  for  trial  upon  the  Governor's  charges.* 
Being  pronounced  guiltless  of  any  offence,  and  no  grounds  be- 
ing found  for  his  further  detention,  he  recrossed  the  Oconee  to 
his  posts  and  preparations.  No  other  prosecution  was  ever 
started,  no  other  judicial  action  of  any  kind  was  ever  taken 
or  attempted  against  him.  He  consequently  felt  warranted 
by  the  people  and  State  in  what  he  was  doing,  and  at  liber- 
ty to  proceed  in  it, — although  condemned  by  the  Governor 

*  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affair*.  Vol,  1,  p.  495,  0,  7,  8,  9,  500. 


56  GEN.    ELIJAH    CLARK. 

and  Judge  Walton.  When,  however,  upon  the  militia 
being  called  out,  he  was  awakened,  by  their  obedience  and 
alacrity,  to  a  knowledge  of  his  mistake  and  of  the  popular 
aversion  to  his  enterprise,  he  made  upon  the  spot  the  best 
amends  in  his  power  by  bowing  to  the  now  unquestionable 
public  will  and  desisting  from  his  ill  starred  work,  ere  it  had 
culminated  in  aught  of  calamity. 

To  a  Georgian  there  are  no  sadder  pages  in  those  huge 
folios,  the  American  State  Papers,  than  those  containing  the 
imperfect,  disjointed,  scattered  details,  concerning  General 
Clark's  conduct  in  the  two  matters  we  have  now  sofully  sifted; 
sad,  less  because  they  tell  of  what  was  wrong  in  his  conduct, 
than  because  they  tell  it  (to  borrow  a  phrase  from  the  elder 
law  books)  without  more,  without  completeness,  without  con- 
nection, without  all  the  facts  that  throw  light  upon  it, — 
without  the  explanations  and  mitigations  that  belong  to 
it,  and  which  make  in  his  favor,  and  which  are  now  conse- 
quently become  less  obvious  and  known,  than  the  things 
which  make  against  him.  Few  will  ever  be  at  the  pains  of 
such  investigation  as  justice  to  him  requires.  Already  has 
the  professional  historian  failed  in  that  duty  and  done  him 
great  wrong  which  there  is  danger  will  be  copied  and  re- 
copied  without  scrutiny,  as  is  too  much  the  wont  among 
book-makers,  until  at  last  the  error  will  become  ineradicable 
in  history  and  go  down  to  posterity  as  undoubted  truth.  It 
concerns  the  people  of  Georgia  that  such  wrong  to  General 
Clark  should  be  rectified.  His  character  and  career,  his 
deeds  and  services,  his  fightings  and  sufferings,  his  wounds 
and  sacrifices,  are  part  of  the  treasured  pride  and  glory  of 
the  State  ;  of  the  divine  pabulum  derived  to  her  from  a  suf- 
fering heroic  past,  whereon,  to  the  end  that  her  children 
may  never  become  recreant,  they  should  feed  now  and  through 
all  time,  and  grow  strong  in  undegenerate  patriotism  and 
manhood,  and  in  all  the  sturdy  virtues  of  their  strong- 
principled,  strong-charactered  ancestors, — like  them  ever 
prompt  at  the  call  of  duty  and  honor,  to  discard  ease  and 
court  danger  and  hardships.  His  character  was  a  mixed 


GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK.  57 

one,  it  is  true,  as  strong,  commanding  characters  often  are. 
But  we  cannot  submit,  because  he  had  faults  and  fell  into 
errors,  that  his  merits  should  be  unduly  shaded  and  almost 
shut  out  from  view,  and  his  character  transmitted  to  the 
future  aspersed  with  epithets  of  obloquy  and  disparagement. 
He  deserves  better  than  that  his  name  should  suffer  by  care- 
less or  prejudiced  historic  handling.  He  died  ranking  to 
his  last  hours  among  Georgia's  most  cherished  heroes  and 
benefactors,  and  Georgians  cannot  but  recoil  from  whatever 
has  the  look  of  lowering  him  from  that  proud  pedestal  on 
which  he  had  placed  himself  with  hard,  and  hard-working 
hands,  and  by  life-long  patriotic  devotion  and  self-imperil- 
ing. Our  fathers,  before  we  were  born,  had  grown  to  him 
in  a  close,  living  embrace  of  love,  gratitude  and  honor.  His 
services  to  Georgia  were  such  as  it  happens  to  but  few  men 
ever  to  have  the  combined  opportunity  and  ability  of  render- 
ing to  their  country.  He  was  emphatically  the  Ajax  Tala- 
mon  of  the  State  in  her  days  of  greatest  trial.  The  British, 
the  Indians  and  the  Tories,  were  ever  swarming  around  him 
or  fleeing  from  him,  or  plotting,  working,  fighting  against 
him.  For  seven  long  years  his  warlike  tramp  was  almost 
everywhere  heard,  especially  from  Augusta  to  our  Northern 
and  Western  border,  and  frequently  also  across  the  Savan- 
nah ;  wherever,  indeed,  danger  was  the  greatest  or  the  ene- 
my strongest.  He  was  made  acquainted,  too,  with  agonies, 
such  as  the  body  knows  not.  Whilst  with  that  boy  son,  the 
future  Governor  of  Georgia,  at  his  side,  he  was  in  the  field 
fighting  and  often  bleeding,  his  British  and  Tory  foes  fear- 
ing to  meet  him,  yet  seeking  to  paralize  him  there,  plun- 
dered and  burnt  his  house,  drove  away  his  wife  and  younger 
children,  and  ordered  them  out  of  the  State.  No  wonder 
that  with  such  a  man  such  treatment  had. the  reverse  of  the 
effect  intended.  No  wonder  that  from  thenceforth  he 
breathed  and  spread  a  more  rapid  falling  vengeance  than 
ever,  if  xthat  were  possible.  No  wonder  that  he  lost  no 
chance  to  strike  a  blow,  and  that  in  every  blow,  he  made 
good  McDuff's  terrible  prayer  : 


58  GEN.    ELIJAH   CLARK. 

"  Gentle  Heavens ! 

Cut  short  all  intermission;  front  to  front, 

Bring  thou  these  fiends  of  Georgia  and  myself ; 

Within  my  sword's  length  set  them ;  if  they  'scape, 

Heaven  forgive  them  too! " 

When  weighing  such  a  man,  such  a  doer  and  sufferer  for 
his  country  as  this,  indictments  that  might  crush  meaner 
personages,  are  but  as  dust  in  the  balance  against  the  rich, 
ponderous  golden  ore  of  his  services  and  merits,  and  we 
hasten  to  shed  a  tear  on  whatever  may  tend  to  soil  his  mem- 
ory and  to  pronounce  it  washed  out  forever. 

His  active  career  closed  with  the  termination  of  the  two  un- 
toward passages  in  it,  which  I  have  narrated,  nor  did  his  life 
last  much  longer.  He  died  in  1799,  at  his  home  in  Wilkes 
county, where  hehad  settled  in  1774, and  was  with  his  laborious 
hands  among  those,  who  struck  the  first  blow  in  reclaiming 
from  the  forest  that  garden  spot  of  the  world,  that  earliest 
installment  of  Middle  Georgia,  which  stretched  out  in  rich- 
ness and  beauty  from  the  Savannah  river  to  the  Ogeechee. 
He  was  the  gift  to  Georgia  of  our  good  elder  sister,  North 
Carolina.  Many,  very  many,  have  been  her  precious  gifts  to  us 
both  of  men  and  women  from  the  colonial  times  down  to  the 
present  day.  Many,  very  many  priceless  human  gifts  has 
Georgia  been  likewise  ever  receiving  from  other  older  quar- 
ters of  our  own  country  and  from  the  old  world — gifts  which 
she  has  taken  to  her  bosom  and  generously  cherished  along 
with  her  dear,  home  born  children.  But  never  has  it  fallen 
to  her  to  have  a  son,  native  or  adopted,  whom  she  could 
more  proudly  boast  and  justly  honor,  or  who  has  more 
deeply  imprinted  himself  on  her  heart  and  memory  than  Eli- 
jah Clark. 


COL.    HAWKINS.  59 


CHAPTER 


COLONEL    HAWKINS. 

One  morning  in  the  month  of  June,  1816,  during  the 
summer  vacation  of  Mt.  Zion  Academy,  being  on  a  visit  to 
my  venerated  grandfather,  I  was  sitting  listless  and  musing 
alone  with  him  in  his  front  porch,  gazing  through  the  syca- 
mores that  surrounded  the  house  across  the  broad,  clean- 
ly cultivated  field*  of  cotton  and  corn  that  sloped 
away  to  the  south;  their  long,  gentle  slant  termi- 
nated by  the  "  verdrous  wall"  of  towering  primeval 
trees  that  had  been  left  to  stand,  gorgeously  fring- 
ing all  that  side  of  the  plantation  for  a  mile  or  more  up  and 
down  Fort  creek.  The  sun  was  nearing  the  meridian.  It 
was  the  day,  and  a  little  after  the  hour,  for  the  mail  rider 
to  pass  on  his  weekly  trip  from  Milledgeville  to  Greensboro, 
and  my  grandfather  having  already  sent  and  gotten  his 
newspaper  from  the  tree  box  on  the  roadside,  was  engaged 
in  reading  it, — the  great  old  Georgia  Journal,  founded  by 
the  Grantland  brothers,  which  he  enjoyed  the  more  because 
they  were  Virginians,  from  Richmond  to  boot,  editorial 
eleves  of  the  renowned  Thos.  Ritchie.  He  had  not  read  long 
before  he  suddenly  stopped,  and,  letting  down  the  paper 
from  his  eyes  said,  "  Col.  Hawkins  is  dead."  The  tone  was 
not  as  if  the  words  were  meant  for  me  or  for  anybody. 
They  sounded  rather  like  the  unconscious,  involuntary  utter- 
ance of  the  soul  to  the  conscious  heavens  and  earth.  All 
nature  seemed  to  lend  her  voice  to  his  words  and  to  speak 
out  in  unison  :  "Col.  Hawkins  is  dead."  Letting  his  news- 
paper drop  to  his  lap  and  resting  his  elbow  on  the  arm  of 
his  chair,  he  bowed  his  head  upon  his  half  open  palm  and 


60  COLONEL   HAWKINS. 

sat  in  silence,  neither  reading  any  more  then  nor  speaking 
another  word.  I  had  all  my  life  been  hearing  of  Col. 
Hawkins,  and  had  become  familiar  with  his  name  as  impor- 
tant in  some  way  in  connection  with  the  Indians,  but  in  what 
way  I  had  never  well  understood.  But  it  was  now  evident  to 
me  that  he  who  was  then  resting  in  his  fresh  grave  in  the  midst 
of  the  Indian  wilderness  on  that  little  knoll  by  Flint  river. 
was  a  greater  and  more  valuable  man  than  I  had  dreamed  ; 
that  niy  grandfather  certainly  thought  greatly  and  highly 
|  of  him, — and  to  me  what  my  grandfather  thought 
Avas  a  measure  and  standard  both  of  men  and  things.  So 
God  ordains  to  him  who  is  early  left  to  grow  up  an  orphan 
boy.  (Seeing  how  much  he  was  affected, — naturally  a  strong 
impression  was  made  on  me.  From  that  moment  the  germ 
of  a  deep,  undying  interest  in  relation  *o  Col.  Hawkins  was 
implanted  in  my  mind,  an  interest  more  than  justified  by 
subsequent  life  long  gleanings  of  information  in  regard  to 
him,  and  which  is  still  strong  enough  to  make  it  impossible 
for  me  to  pass  finally  away  from  the  commingled  affairs  of 
Georgia  and  the  Creek  nation  without  commemorating  him 
and  doing  him  homage. 

Large  indeed  were  the  claims  of  Col.  Hawkins  to  be  loved 
and  honored  all  over  Georgia,  and  especially  along  the 
Oconee  river  on  both  sides,  and  between  the  Oconee  and  the 
Ocmulgee.  His  services  to  our  people  had  run  through  a 
long  period  and  were  of  the  most  signal  character.  At  the 
time  of  his  death,  it  was  for  some  twenty  years  that  he  had 
been  occupying  officially  between  Georgia  and  the  Indians 
what  may  almost  be  called  a  heavenly,  mediatorial  relation, 
faithfully  devoting  himself  as  peace-maker,  peace-preserver, 
and  peace-restorer,  all  that  time  between  the  two  mutually 
distrustful  and  bitterly  divided  races.  Of  this  most  ardu- 
ous, delicate  and  sometimes  dangerous  duty,  he  had  acquit- 
ted himself  with  an  assiduity  and  sagacity,  with  an  integ- 
rity, ability  and  success  that  had  obtained  for  him  boundless 
confidence  and  respect  from  both  sides  and  rendered  him 
dear  and  illustrious  alike  to  civilized  men  and  savages  from 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  61 

the  Savannah  river  to  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.  For 
although  he  was  the  special  resident  Agent  for  the  Creek 
tribe  only,  yet  such  was  Washington's  estimate  of  him  that 
he  made  him  General  Superintendent  also  of  all  the  tribes 
south  of  the  Ohio  ;  hence  he  became  a  well  known  and  ex- 
ceedingly important  man  to  them  all. 

It  was  a  noble  expansive  humanity  that  first  planted  him 
among  the  Indians  and  kept  him  there  all  his  life.  He 
went  and  he  remained  among  them  an  angel  of  kindness, — 
an  apostle  of  conciliation,  friendship  and  good  will.  Unlike 
McGillivray,  who  belonged  solely  and  intensely  to  the  In- 
dians in  his  feelings  and  actions,  and  with  whom  enmity  to 
Georgia  was  a  capital  virtue, — unlike  Elijah  Clark,  who 
was  wholly  Georgian,  and  was  to  Georgia,  against  the  In- 
dians, very  much  what  McGillivray  was  to  the  Indians  against 
Georgia, — their  bitter,  most  dreaded,  effective  foe, — Benj. 
Hawkins'  career  was  on  and  along  a  middle  line,  as  it  were,  his 
part  that  of  at  once  a  parental  guardian  and  protector  of  the 
Indians  and  a  common  friend  and  conscientious  arbiter  be- 
tween them  and  their  civilized  neighbors.  It  is  a  fact  most 
honorable  to  him,  that  in  allowing  himself  to  be  appointed 
to  this  rather  unique  and  very  trying  and  difficult  station, 
Col.  Hawkins  was  actuated  in  no  degree  by  the  meaner  mo- 
tives by  which  men  are  too  apt  to  be  governed.  Nothing  of 
a  money-loving,  nu-rcernary  sort  entered  into  his  reasons. 
It  was  neither  penury  or  embarrassment  in  his  affairs,  or 
thirst  for  wealth,  or  a  chain  of  fortuitous  circumstances,  or 
the  loss  or  want  of  prospects  satisfactory  to  his  ambition 
elsewhere,  that  operated  upon  him.  It  was  his  own  large, 
man-embracing  nature,  and  a  generous  passion  to  be  useful, 
aye,  beneficient  to  his  kind,  that  impelled  him.  And  he 
rises  inestimably  in  our  view,  when  we  consider  how  much 
he  gave  up,  what  sacrifices  he  made  to  this  feeling  : — Sac- 
rifices requisite  in  no  branch  of  the  public  service  so  much 
as  in  that  of  Indian  Agency,  and  which  in  Col.  Hawkin's 
particular  case,  imparted  to  his  conduct  not  a  little  the  char- 
acter of  a  romantic,  sublimated  benevolence  and  martyr- 


62  COLONEL    HAAVKINS. 

like  self-devotion,— nothing  short  of  which  could  have 
moved  him  in  his  actual  circumstances  to  quit  civilized  hab- 
itation and  society,  and  to  bury  himself  lor  life  in  remote 
savage  woods,  and  among  still  more  savage  people,  from 
whose  midst  he  never  again  emerged. 

For  he  was  born  to  wealth  and  experienced  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  life  all  its  advantages  in  one  of  the  best  sec- 
tions of  North  Carolina,  in  what  was  then  Bute,  now  War- 
ren county,  on  the  confines  of  the  most  enlightened  and  re- 
fined part  of  Virginia.  Throughout  his  youth  his  good  op- 
portunities were  well  improved.  After  proper  preparation 
in  schools  near  home,  his  father  sent  him,  along  with  his 
younger  brother  Joseph,  to  Princeton  College,  for  the  com- 
pletion of  theireducation.  The  Revolutionary  war  interrupted 
the  Institution  and  his  studies,  when  he  was  in  the  Senior 
Class  and  almost  at  the  end  of  his  course.  So  he  may  be 
pronounced  to  have  entered  on  Hie  a  young  man  of  accom- 
plished education,  in  addition  to  all  the  other  felicities  of  his 
lot.  Among  other  things,  it  merits  to  be  particularly  men- 
tioned, that  he  became  an  excellent  master  of  the  French 
language.  This  acquirement  it  was  that  led  to  Washing- 
ton's taking  him  into  his  military  family  to  be  his  medium 
of  correspondence  and  conversation  with  the  French  officers 
and  others  with  whom  he  had  to  have  intercourse  in  that 
tongue.  But  his  duties  on  the  staff  were  not  merely  of  this 
light  and  literary  kind.  He  braved  the  campaigns,  encoun- 
tering hardships  and  participating  in  battles,  showing  him- 
self, though  very  young,  on  all  occasions  worthy  of  his 
epaulets  and  of  his  honorable  relation  to  his  illustrious 
commander-in-chief. 

Judging  from  his  career,  he  must  have  been  precociously 
distinguished  for  talents,  address  and  aptitude  for  affairs. 
As  early  as  1780,  when  he  was  but  twenty-six  years  old, 
North  Carolina  made  him  her  general  agent  for  obtaining 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  all  kinds  of  supplies  for  her  troops. 
In  discharge  of  which  oifice  he  made  a  voyage  to  St.  Eusta- 
tia,  in  the  West  Indies,  a  small  neutral  Island,  that  seems 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  63 

to  have  served  the  same  ends  for  our  ancestors  during  the 
Revolutionary  war  as  did  Nassau  for  the  Confederate  States 
during  the  late  war  of  Secession.  He  was  entirely  successful 
in  his  part  of  the  business,  but  the  merchant  ship  in  which 
he  embarked  his  purchases,  chiefly  munitions  of  war,  was 
captured  by  the  enemy  and  the  supplies  lost  to  the  State. 
Returning  home  we  see  him  soon  representing  North 
Carolina  in  the  Continental  Congress,  his  name  first  appear- 
ing on  the  Journal  of  that  body  the  4th  of  October,  1781. 
He  was  continued  in  this  eminent  position,  by  successive  re- 
elections,  until  the  20th  of  December,  1786.  On  the  acces- 
sion of  North  Carolina  to  the  new  Federal  Constitution,  he 
was  chosen  one  of  her  first  Senators  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  where  a  full  term  of  six  years  fell  to  him  in 
the  allotment  of  seats* 

It  is  proper  to  mention  here,  that  before  the  new  Govern- 
ment was  organized,  and  whilst  he  was  yet  a  member  of  the 
old  Continental  Congress,  lie  was  detailed,  without  interfer- 
ence, however,  with  his  Congressional  duties,  into  another 
public  service  of  the  highest  importance,  though  of  a  very 
different  nature.  It  was  this  :  On  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  the  forming  of  amicable  relations  with  the  va- 

!  rious  Indian  tribes  in  every  direction  around  the  United 
States,  became  a  matter  of  the  greatest  and  most  pressing 
interest.  Congress,  taking  to  itself  a  concurrent  jurisdiction 
with  the  States  in  all  Indian  matters,  appointed  Col.  Haw- 
kins as  one  of  its  Commissioners  plenipotentiary,  to  be  sent 
tor  the  purpose  of  opening  friendly  negotiation  with  the  four 
great  Southern  tribes,  the  Creeks,  the  Cherokees,  the  Choc- 
taws  and  the  Chickasaws.  With  the  three  last  named  tribes 
the  commissioners  succeeded  in  negotiating  satisfactory  trea- 
ties whereby  they  entered  into  peace  and  friendship  with  the 

j  United  States,  and  placed  themselves  under  their  protection 
to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  nation  or  sovereign,  and  gave 
to  Congress  the  sole  power  of  regulating  trade  with  them 


'Spark's  Life  and  Writ  in  xs  nf  Washington,  Vol.  12,  p.  4 '2-1,  431. 


64  COLONEL    HAWKINS. 

and  managing  their  affairs  generally.*  The  attempt  to  ne- 
gotiate a  treaty  with  the  Creeks  proved  abortive  from  many 
causes,  at  the  bottom  of  which  lay  their  entanglement 
with  Spain  by  the  treaty  of  Pensacola,  and  their  difficulties 
with  Georgia,  which  had  the  effect  of  keeping  them  aloof  in 
a  hostile  mood,  until  that  master  stroke  of  Washington  in 
1790,  which  eventuated  in  the  treaty  of  New  York,  by  which 
the  Creeks  placed  themselves  in  like  relations  to  us  with  the 
other  three  tribes. 

Col.  Hawkins'  senatorial  term  ended  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1795.  Before  its  expiration  Washington,  who  had  witnessed 
with  regret,  that  the  treaty  of  New  York  had  only  partially 
produced  the  fruits  of  peace  expected  from  it,  but  who  now 
saw  his  anxious  policy  of  thorough  Indian  pacification  verg- 
ing towards  lull  triumph,  fixed  his  eyes  on  .the  long  known, 
well  tried  North  Carolina  Senator,  as  the  fittest  man  to  take 
charge  of  the  well-advanced  work  of  conciliation,  and  then, 
also,  after  it  should  be  wound  up  auspiciously,  to  crown  and 
secure  it  by  becoming  the  permanent  agent  for  Indian  af- 
fairs among  the  Creeks. 

Col.  Hawkins'  family,  one  of  the  most  numerous,  influen- 
tial and  ambitious  in  his  State,  was  very  averse  to  his  cm- 
bracing  such  views.  Wheeler,  in  his  history  of  North  Caro- 
lina, to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  many  interesting  things  in 
this  sketch,  is  emphatic  upon  their  opposition,  f  for  which 
several  good  reasons  are  given,  such  as  his  wealth,  his  high 
education  and  culture,  his  great  advantages  of  family  and 
social  and  political  position,  the  strong  hold  he  already  pos- 
sessed in  North  Carolina,  his  flattering  future  there,  &c.,  &c. 
The  historian,  however,  does  not  even  attempt  any  reasons 
why  all  these  considerations  failed  to  prevent  him  from 
yielding  to  Washington's  wishes.  And  yet,  these  reasons, 
at  even  this  distant  day,  may  be  easily  divined.  Col.  Haw- 
kins, as  we  have  seen,  had  been  much  among  the  Indians 


*See  these  Treaties  in  the  .Appendix  to  Wat  kin's  Digest  and  Marbwy  fy  Craw- 
ford's Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Georgia. 
tSce  Title  "Warren  County.'' 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  65 

officially  ;  he  had  penetrated  the  mighty  forests  which  hid 
them,  and  seen  and  ohserved  them  amid  their  vast  unculti- 
vated woods  ;  he  had  been  brought  in  close  contact  and  con- 
verse with  them  under  circumstances  which  presented  them 
in  their  most  impressive  points  of  view.  He  had  thus  got- 
ten to  feel  deeply  interested  in  them  and  to  be  strongly  af- 
fected by  that  Indian  fascination  which  thousands,  both  be- 
fore and  after  him,  have  experienced,  without  being  able  to 
understand  and  interpret  it.  Whatever  it  may  be,  or  how- 
ever it  may  be  explained,  it  is  certainly  something  so  pow- 
erful and  touching,  as  hardly  ever  to  die  away  wholly  from 
minds  upon  which  it  has  once  laid  its  spell : — And  particu- 
larly in  the  case  of  such  noble  savage  races  as  the  Creeks 
and  Cherokees,  it  always  generated  a  feeling  of  the  most 
lively  sort  in  all  who  happened  to  become  well  acquainted 
with  them  in  a  kindly  way  in  their  own  beautiful  country. 
Behold  iiere  the  true,  though  subtle  cause  of  those  feelings 
and  that  bias  of  mind  which  mainly  actuated  Col.  Hawkins 
in  accepting  the  Creek  Agency,  and  not  only  in  accepting  it, 
but  in  making  its  life-long  duties  a  labor  of  love  to  him  and 
a  source  of  high  moral  and  intellectual  occupation  and  en- 
joyment. It  was  this  generous,  intense  fitness  of  the  soul 
to  the  task  on  which  he  entered  which,  added  to  his  other 
happy  qualifications,  made  him  such  a  wonderful  exemplar 
of  what  an  United  States  Agent  and  proconsul  should  be,  for 
the  greatest,  proudest,  most  warlike  and  jealous  of  all  our 
Indian  tribes. 

His  coup  de  'essai  in  this  new  service  was  the  treaty  of  Col- 
raine,  negotiated  in  1796,  and  which,  also,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  a  coup  de  maitre.  It  was  a  much  needed  supplement  to 
the  treaty  of  New  York,  curing  entirely  all  the  wounds 
which,  notwithstanding  that  treaty,  had  continued,  more  or 
less,  to  bleed  and  fester.  At  this  point  then  began,  and 
thus  propitiously  opened,  Col.  Hawkins'  long,  benign  and 
exceedingly  responsible  official  career,  in  connection  with 
that  formidable,  but  at  length  conciliated  Indian  people, 
with  whose  history  his  name  was  about  to  become  identified 
in  a  manner  so  honorable  to  himself  and  to  human  nature. 


66  COLONEL    HAWKINS. 

He  had  a  jurisdiction  which,  in  the  extent   of  territory  it 
embraced,  was  scarcely  less  than  imperial.     Starting    from 
the  St.  Mary's,  far  down  towards  the  sea,  the   line  ran  di- 
rectly across  to  the  Altamaha,  dividing  the  Tallassee  coun- 
try from  the  seaboard  counties  of  Georgia.     On  striking  the 
Altamaha,  it  turned  up  and  along  the  western  bank  of  that 
river  and  the  Oconee,  to  the  High  Shoals  of  the  Apallachy, 
where  it  intersected  the   Cherokee  line  ;    then  turning  west- 
wardly,  it  followed  that  line  through  Georgia  and  Alabama 
till  the  Choctaw  line  was  reached  in  Mississippi  ;  then  south- 
erly, down  that  line  to  the   31st  parallel;    then    along  that 
parallel  to  the  Chattahoochee;  thence  to  that  river's  junction 
with  the  Flint,  thence  to  the  head    of  the  St.   Marys,    and 
thence  along  that  stream  to  the  point  of  beginning.     An  im- 
mense region  than  which,  as  a  whole,    there  is    none  finer 
under  the  sun,    stretching    more  than    four  hundred  miles 
from  East  to  West  and  two  hundred   from  North    to  South. 
This  wide  and  greatly  favored  region  became  thence  forward 
the  scene  of  his  labors,  and  to  it  and  nature's  unsophisticated 
children  who  roamed  over  it,  and  to  all  his  duties   to   them 
and  to  the  neighboring  civilized  people,  he  at  once  applied 
himself  with  that  high  moral  sense  and  generous   solicitude 
which  noble  minds  always  feel  for  great  interests  committed 
to  their  charge.     From  the  outset  he  studied  the  people  and 
their  country,  and  accomplished  himself  in    all   knowledge 
appertaining  to  the  one  and  the   other.     And    here  the  ad- 
vantages, growing  out  of  his  fine  early  education  and  out  of 
the  intellectual  tastes,  quickness  and  inquisitivenesss  which 
were  its  fruits,  stood  out  to  view  and  served  him  in    double 
stead,  prompting  and  enabling  him  to  become  at   once  more 
thoroughly  and  variously  qualified  for  the  multiform  duties 
of  his  station,  and  availing  him  also  as  a  source  of  private 
enjoyment   and   mental   support   and  comfort   in    his  self- 
decreed  official  exile.     Nor  was  it  with   the  mind  only   that 
he  labored,  but  with  the  pen  also,  and  so  perseveringly  as  to 
leave  behind  him  a  great  amount  of  manuscripts  concerning 
he  Creeks  and  the  Creek  country.     Of  these  manuscripts, 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  67 

to  which  the  public  of  that  day  attached  great  importance, 
and  not  without  cause,  judging  from  such  small  published 
parts  as  have  fallen  under  my  eye, — a  large  portion  perished 
in  the  burning  of  his  house  soon  after  his  death.  Another 
large  portion  escaped  the  flames  and  were  afterwards  confi- 
ded to  the  Georgia  Historical  Society.  But  the  great  interest 
they  once  excited  has  long  since  become  extinct,  having 
gradually  sunk  along  with  the  melancholy  fortunes  of  the 
rude  and  remarkable  people  to  whom  and  to  whose  coun- 
try those  writings  relate.  Yet  may  it  not  be,  that  ran- 
sacked and  studied  hereafter  in  distant  future  times,  they 
will  furnish  to  some  child  of  genius,  yet  to  be  born,  much 
of  material  and  inspiration  for  an  immortal  Indian  epic  of 
which  the  world  wil  1  never  tire. 

Under  the  faithful  proconsular  sway  of  Col.  Hawkins,  the 
Creek  Indians  enjoyed,  for  sixteen  years,  unbroken  peace 
among  themselves  and  with  their  neighbors,  and  also  what- 
soever other  blessings  were  possible  to  the  savage  state,  which 
it  was  his  study  gradually  to  ameliorate.  To  this  end  he 
spared  no  pains.  Much  was  done  to  initiate,  instruct  and 
encourage  them  in  the  lower  and  most  indispensable  parts 
of  civilization.  Pasturage  was  brought  into  use,  agriculture 
also,  to  some  extent,  both  together  supplanting  considerably 
among  them  their  previous  entire  reliance  for  food  oa  hunt- 
ing, fishing  and  wild  fruits.  To  the  better  and  more  secure 
modes  of  obtaining  a  livelihood  which  civilization  offers,  he 
sought  to  win  them  by  example  as  well  as  by  precept.  He 
brought  his  slaves  from  North  Carolina,  and  under  the  right 
conceded  to  his  office,  he  opened  and  cultivated  a  large  plan- 
tation at  the  Agency  on  Flint  river,  making  immense  crops 
of  corn  and  other  provisions.  He  also  reared  great  herds  of 
cattle  and  swine,  and  having  thus  always  abundance  of  meat 
and  bread,  he  was  enabled  to  practice  habitually  towards 
the  Indians,  a  profuse,  though  coarse,  hospitality  and  be- 
nevolence, which  gained  their  hearts  and  bound  them  to  him 
by  ties  as  loyal  and  touching  as  those  of  old  feudal  allegi- 
ance and  devotion.  There  was  something  in  the  vast  scale 


fiS  COLONEL   HAWKINS. 

and  simple,  primitive  management  of  these,  his  farming  and 
stock-raising  interests,  that  carries  the  mind  back  to  the 
grand,  princely,  pastoral  patriarchs  of  the  Old  Testament— 
to  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  Job.  For  food  his 
herds  roamed  the  boundless  forests  and  grew  fat  upon  the 
caney  bottoms  and  grass-bearing  uplands,  and  the  mast 
that  fell  from  the  trees,  costing  him  nothing,  save  their 
marking,  branding,  salting  and  minding,  services  well  per- 
formed by  his  faithful  negroes  and  their  Indian  assistants. 
The  sanctity  with  which  the  Indians,  throughout  the  nation, 
regarded  his  cattle,  was  a  beautiful  trait  in  their  relations 
to  him.  Whatever  bore  his  mark  or  brand,  was  everywhere 
absolutely  safe.  He  often  had  as  many  as  five  hundred 
calves  at  a  time,  to  separate  which  from  their  dams,  Flint 
river  was  used  as  a  dividing  fence,  across  which,  that  it 
might  be  used  in  this  manner,  he  built  a  bridge,  with  a  gate 
at  each  end.  There  of  evenings  at  that  bridge's  western  end, 
hundreds  of  lowing  cows,  returned  from  their  day's  wild 
pasturing,  moaned  wistfully  to  as  many  answering  calves 
bleating  from  its  eastern  extremity.  For  he  repudiated  the 
lazy  policy  which  to  this  day  marks  herdsmen  as  a  class,  who 
with  great  droves  of  cattle  and  calves,  are  strangers  to  the 
luxuries  of  butter  and  milk.  His  milk  was  measured  by 
barrels  and  churned  by  machinery,  and  great  were  the  out- 
comes,— yet  not  more  than  enough  for  his  vast  hospitality  to 
the  Indians  and  white  folks,  and  his  regal  munificence  to 
his  negroes.  Had  the  great  pastoral  bards  of  antiquity  not 
sung  and  died  before  his  day,  elated,  they  would  have  seized 
upon  these  scenes  and  celebrated  them  in  their  finest  strains 
as  more  wonderous,  grandly  rural  and  baronial,  than  aught 
in  all  the  charming  bucolics  they  have  left  us. 

But  at  length  adverse  circumstances  and  influences  arose  so 
powerful  that  it  was  impossible  for  Col.  Hawkins  with  all  his 
address  and  weight  of  authority  among  the  Indians  to  main- 
tain peace  in  the  nation.  The  war  of  1812,  between  this 
country  and  England,  had  been  portentously  brewing  for  a 
long  time  before  it  actually  broke  out.  Seeing  its  approach, 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  69 

Great  Britain,  through  her  numerous  agents  aiid  emissaries 
among  the  Indians,  by  liberal  largesses  and  supplies  of  arms 
to  them,  and  by  whatever  other  means  were  at  her  command 
in  her  neighboring  Canadian  provinces,  had  been  for  several 
years  tampering  with  the  North  Western  tribes,  and  foment- 
ing among  them  a  hostile  feeling  towards  the  United  States. 
As  soon  as  the  requisite  success  had  been  attained  on  this 
border,  she  directed  her  attention  to  the  Southern  and  West- 
ern tribes,  and  began  her  machinations  among  them  also. 
The  great  argument  by  which  she  sought  to  delude  and  in- 
cite them  was,  that  by  uniting  their  own  arms  with  the 
British,  the  tide  of  American  aggression,  which  was  rapidly 
dispossessing  them  of  their  lands  and  driving  them  further 
and  further  to  the  West,  might  be  stayed  and  even  made  to 
recoil  on  the  aggressors.  Her  real  object,  however,  was  to 
get  well  within  her  grasp  and  to  brandish  over  us  the  thun- 
derbolts of  a  terrific  Indian  war,  held  in  hand  and  ready  to 
be  hurled  upon  our  whole  thousand  miles  of  exposed  fron- 
tier from  the  lakes  to  Florida,  in  the  hope  on  her  part  that 
we  thereby  might  be  deterred  from  declaring  war  against 
her  at  a  time  when  she  was  already  so  sorely  pressed  by 
Bonaparte  and  the  French.  Such  was  the  view  with  which 
she  conceived  and  prompted  the  famous  incendiary  mission 
of  the  celebrated  Shawnee  Chief,  Tecumseh,  and  his  brother, 
the  Prophet,  to  the  Southern  tribes  in  1811.*  They  had 
little  or  no  success,  however,  with  the  Cherokees,  Choctaws 
and  Chickasaws.  But  better  omens  awaited  them  among 
the  Creeks, — a  thing  partly  owing  to  the  greater  residuum 
of  suppressed  enmity  towards  us  that  still  rankled  in  that 
tribe,  as  also  to  their  naturally  more  warlike  and  ferocious 
character  ;  partly,  likewise,  because  Tecumseh  and  the 
Prophet  were  of  Creek  blood  and  extraction,  their  father 
and  mother  having  with  their  little  children  migrated  in 
176T  from  the  heart  of  the  Creek  countryf  to  the  Northwest, 

*  American  State  Papers,  Indian  A/airs,  Vol.  I,  p.  800;  Picket?*  History  of 
Alabama,  Vol.2,  p.  242. 

iPickett's  History,  Vol.  2,  /?.  241. 


70  COLONEL   HAWKINS. 

where  Tecuraseli  himself  was  soon  after  born,  who,  however, 
when  he  grew  up  made  a  visit  of  two  years  to  his  ancestral 
land  and  people.  The  consequence  was  that  when  he  ar- 
rived among  them  on  his  mission  of  mischief  in  1811,  he 
became  quickly  master  of  their  sympathies  as  he  already 
was  of  their  language.  He  reached  Tuckabatchee,  the  Creek 
capital  and  the  seat  of  the  Big  Warrior,  whilst  Col.  Hawkins 
was  there  holding  a  grand  council  of  the  nation.  Keeping 
dark  as  to  the  object  of  his  coming  until  Col.  Hawkins  had 
departed,  he  then  disclosed  his  errand  with  that  fierce  Indian 
eloquence  for  which  he  was  famous,  and  with  all  the  most 
impressive  collateral  solemnities  of  savage  superstition  and 
patriotism.  By  these  means  and  the  powerful  aid  of  that 
most  extraordinary  Indian  religionist  and  fanatic,  his 
brother,  the  Prophet,  who  accompanied  him  with  an  impos- 
ing retinue,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  he  succeeded  in  kindling 
a  flame  among  the  Creeks  which  was  to  be  nursed  and  kept 
smouldering  until  after  the  happening  of  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  when  at  some  proper  mo- 
ment and  given  signal,  that  flame  was  to  burst  forth  into 
one  vast  conflagration  along  our  whole  frontier. 

It  is  a  proof  both  of  the  powerful  ascendant  Col.  Hawkins 
had  acquired  over  the  wild  people  among  whom  he  dwelt, 
and  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  of  his  great  ability  and 
fitness  for  the  position  he  had  so  long  filled  among  them, 
that  although  the  anticipated  war  between  England  and  the 
United  States  broke  out  and  involved  the  Indians  the  very 
next  year  ;  yet  a  large  portion  of  the  Creek  territory,  (all 
that  part  bordering  on  Georgia  and  extending  west  from  the 
Ocmulgee  to  the  Chattahoochee,)  never  became  its  actual 
seat,  and  consequently  that  our  long  line  of  frontier  settle- 
ments never  suffered  a  whit  more  than  the  interior  parts  of 
the  State  from  the  war's  perils  and  alarms.  This  happy 
exemption  was  due  almost  wholly  to  the  fact  that  Col. 
Hawkins'  official  seat  and  residence  having  been  first  on  the 
Ocmulgee  at  the  beautiful  site  opposite  to  Macon  which  still 
bears  his  name,  and  afterwards  on  the  Flint  river  at  the 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  71 

place  still  called  the  Old  Agency,  his  personal  influence, 
intercourse  and  acquaintance  with  the  Indians  on  the  Geor- 
gia side  of  their  country  was  much  greater  and  impressed 
its  effects  more  strongly  than  farther  to  the  West.  Hence 
the  Indians  on  the  eastern  side  remained  pacific,  and  not 
only  so,  but  they  became  our  actual  friends  and  allies.  For 
the  purpose  of  protecting  and  keeping  them  secure  and 
steady  in  this  adherence,  the  friendly  warriors  were,  on  the 
advice  of  Col.  Hawkins,  organized  into  a  regiment  of  which 
he  became  the  titular  Colonel,  although  he  never  took  the 
field,  deeming  it  better  to  devolve  the  actual  command  upon 
the  noble  and  some  years  afterwards  ill-fated  Chief,  William 
Melntosh,*  who,  like  the  great  McGillivray,  was  only  of  the 
half  blood  in  the  civilization  of  lineage,  but  more  than  the 
whole  blood  in  the  better  and  loftier  traits  that  do  honor  to 
man's  nature. 

The  result  of  all  these  things  was  that  the  few  hostile  In- 
dians who  were  scattered  through  this  friendly  eastern  sec- 
tion of  their  country,  disappeared  and  merged  themselves 
with  the  more  congenial  belligerent  elements  in  the  middle 
and  western  parts  of  the  nation, — on  the  waters  of  the 
Coosa,  Tallapoosa  and  Alabama.  There  concentrated  and 
fierce  they  stood  at  bay  and  fought  and  fell  in  many  a  battle 
under  the  heavy,  rapid  blows  of  that  predestined  conqueror 
of  their  race,  Gen.  Jackson,  the  second  of  that  great  heroic 
name  in  Southern  history,  where  he  stands  and  will  ever 
stand  towering  and  resplendent  in  the  midst  with  him  of 
Georgia  and  him  of  Virginia  close  touching  and  illustrious 
on  either  side. 

Gen.  Jackson  having  brought  this  great  Southern  Indian 
war  to  a  close  early  in  1814,  was  not  allowed  to  pause  in  his 
career.  The  Government  wanted  his  genius,  his  energy 
and  his  indomitable  will  on  another  and  a  much  grander 
and  more  important  theatre  near  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. He  went,  and  in  the  short,  glorious  campaign  of 
New  Orleans,  gave  the  finishing  stroke  to  the  war  with 

*  Wheeler's  North  Carolina,  title,  Warren  County. 


72  COLONEL   HAWKINS. 

Great  Britain,  as  he  had  already  just  done  to  that  with  her 
deluded  savage  allies.  But  before  going  to  gather  these 
brighter  laurels,  he  received  at  Fort  Jackson,  near  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa,  the  absolute  surrender 
and  submission  of  the  crushed  and  starving  Creek  nation. 
There  with  his  victor's  sword,  and  in  conformity  with  com- 
mands from  Washington  city,  he  dictated  the  terms  of  a 
treaty  of  peace  and  marked  out  narrower  bounds  to  the 
vanquished  and  all  their  tribe.  How  much  was  taken  from 
them  and  how  little  was  left  to  them  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  striking  and  consequential  events  in  our  Indian  and 
Anglo-American  annals.  From  that  time  the  prowess,  the 
spirits  and  the  prospects  of  the  long  redoubtable  Creek 
nation  were  broken  forever.  The  capitulation  of  Fort 
Jackson  was  its  death-knell  and  tomb.  Even  the  three 
great  friendly  Chiefs,  the  Big  Warrior,  the  Little  Prince, 
and  Mclntosh  were  cut  to  the  heart  by  this  deep  incision  of  a 
sword  whose  every  gleam  they  had  been  wont  to  watch  with 
loyal  gaze  and  honor  with  soldierly  obedience,  though  mar- 
shalling them  into  the  jaws  of  danger  and  death.  Col. 
Hawkins  was  profoundly  saddened  at  the  hard,  wretched  fate 
of  those  whom  he  had  long  cherished  as  if  they  were  his 
children.  A  cruel  dart  too  entered  his  bosom  from  the  lips 
of  the  Big  Warrior,*  whom  the  Colonel  was  well  known  to 
have  regarded  as  one  of  nature's  great  men  and  the  ablest 
of  Indian  statesmen.  The  stern,  long  confiding  chief  mourn- 
fully upbraided  him  for  having  persuaded  himself  and  so 

*The  name  of  Big  Warrior  was  given  him  on  account  of  his  great  size.  He 
was  the  only  corpulent  full  blooded  Indian  I  ever  saw,  yet  he  was  not  so  cor- 
pulent as  to  be  either  unweildly  or  ungainly.  In  fact  his  corpulency  added  to 
the  magnificence  of  his  appearance.  His  person  and  looks  were  in  a  high  de- 
gree grand  and  imposing.  Tustenuggee  Thlucco,  was  his  Indian  name.  He 
and  Col.  Hawkins  first  met  at  the  treaty  of  Colraine  in  1796,  and  were  great 
friends  down  to  the  time  of  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson.  He  was  probably  the 
most  enlightened  and  civilized  man  of  the  full  Indian  blood  the  Creek  nation 
ever  produced.  He  was  wealthy  and  a  lover  of  wealth.™  He  cultivated  a  fine 
plantation  with  his  seventy  or  eighty  negroes,  near  Tuckabatchee,  where  he 
lived  in  a  good  house,  furnished  in  a  plain,  civilized  style. 


COLONEL   HAWKINS.  73 

many  of  his  chiefs  and  people  to  stand  neutral  in  the  war 
or  take  part  in  it  against  their  country.  For  years  after- 
wards the  story  used  to  be  told  how  the  big  tears  stood  in 
tho  aged  Agent's  eyes  as  he  listened  in  silence  to  a  reproach 
which  he  felt  was  at  once  undeserved  and  unanswerable. 

Judging  from  Wheeler's  history,  it  would  seem  that  North 
Carolina  was  disposed  to  claim  Col.  Hawkins  as  not  only 
peculiarly  but  exclusively  her  own.  But  his  career,  his  la- 
bors and  his  merits  are  too  broad,  diverse  and  manifold  and 
illustrate  too  many  scenes  and  subjects  of  national  impor- 
tance with  which  he  was  connected,  to  admit  of  such  appro- 
priation. His  fame  is  as  well  the  property  of  Georgia,  of 
the  Creek  nation  and  of  the  United  States  at  large  as  of 
North  Carolina.  They  all  rush  to  compete  with  his  mother- 
land and  to  insist  on  having  along  with  her  a  share  in  such 
a  man,  to  whom  they  each  owe  so  much  of  gratitude.  In 
fact  the  more  he  is  contemplated,  the  larger  and  more  ca- 
tholic becomes  his  hold  on  the  heart,  and  we  end  by  feeling 
that  all  mankind,  civilized  and  savage,  have  a  right  to  rise 
up  and  exclaim  : — He  is  ours  also. 


PART  II. 


CHAPTER  I.— MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

CHAPTER  II.— MIDDLE    GEORGIA     (continued)     AND 

THE  NEGRO. 
CHAPTER   III.— MIDDLE   GEORGIA   (continued)    AND 

THE  LAND  LOTTERY  SYSTEM. 
CHAPTER  IV.— THE  PINE  MOUNTAIN. 
CHAPTER  V.— KING'S  GAP  AND  KING'S  TRAILS. 
CHAPTER  VI.— THE  PINE  BARREN  SPECULATION 

IN  1794,  1795. 
CHAPTER  VII.— THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 


CHAIPTER  I. 


MIDDLE    GEORGIA. 

We  have  seen  in  treating  of  the  Oconee  war  how  the  In- 
dians gave  the  name  of  Virginians  to  the  hosts  of  unwelcome 
strangers  that  began  to  pour  into  their  immemorial  hunting 
grounds  soon  after  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  continued  to 
come  in  unceasing  swarms  until  at  length  they  filled  up  the 
whole  country  to  the  east  of  the  Oconee  river.  Nor  was  the 
appellation  wrongly  given.  For  it  is  a  fact  that  this  coun- 
try was  mainly  settled  up  in  the  first  instance  hy  direct  col- 
onization from  Virginia  and,  in  some  parts,  from  North 
Carolina,  and  not  hy  theold  population  of  Georgia  spreading 
out  over  it.  We  find  evidence  in  our  statute  book  of  the 
early  attraction  of  the  Virginians  thither.  As  far  back  as 
1783,  a  petition  came  from  Virginia  and  was  granted  by  our 
Legislature,  asking  that  two  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  might  be  reserved  in  this  region  of  the  State  for  such 
emigrants  from  Virginia  as  should  wish  to  settle  down  in 
one  solid,  homogeneous  neighborhood  ;  which  reservation  is 
noticed  and  ratified  in  the  Act  of  1784,  organizing  the  coun- 
ties of  Washington  and  Franklin.  This  fact,  though  now 
long  buried,  possesses  some  historical  interest  still,  as  bear- 
ing on  the  important  point  that  the  great  mass  of  the  first 
settlers,  who  replaced  the  Indians  in  this  part  of  Georgia, 
came  from  Virginia,  particularly  those  who  established 
themselves  on  the  best  lands.  And  they  came  not  scatter- 
ing]}' and  wide  apart,  but  in  quick  succeeding  throngs, 
bringing  along  with  thorn  their  wives,  children  and  servants, 


4  MIDDLE  GEOKQIA. 

and  their  household  goods  and  gods, — allured  by  the  cheapness 
and  fertility  of  the  lands,  the  pleasantness  and  salubrity  of 
the  climate,  the  felicity  of  the  seasons,  the  happy  lying  and 
cotnraodiousness  of  the  country,  well  wooded,  well  watered, 
with  easy  wagoning  access  to  the  flourishing  commercial  mart 
of  Augusta  and  with,  from  thence,  a  fine  navigation  by  the 
Savannah  river  down  to  the  excellent  seaport  of  Savannah, 
close  upon  the  ocean  ;  to  all  which  was  superadded  the 
known  aptitude  of  the  country  for  the  peculiar  agriculture 
to  which  the  Virginians  were  accustomed.  For  Whitney, 
young,  poor,  but  restless  with  inborn-ingenuity,  hospitably 
domesticated  in  the  house  of  Gen.  Greene's  widow,  near  Sa- 
vannah, had  not  yet  invented  that  most  wonderful  and 
beneficent  machine,  the  cotton  gin,  and  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  as  a  commercial  commodity  was  unknown  among  us, 
and  tobacco  was  still  the  master  staple  in  upper  Georgia  as 
well  as  in  Virginia.  There  are  probably  some  very  ancient 
people  yet  living  who  remember  those  tobacco-growing  times 
and  the  queer  custom  of  rolling  tobacco  hogsheads  to  Au- 
gusta and  the  great  rigor  of  the  tobacco  inspection  ill  that 
market. 

Of  the  immense  preponderance  of  the  immigration  from 
Virginia  over  that  from  all  other  quarters,  some  idea  may  be 
formed  from  the  fact  that  in  my  native  section  when  I  was  a 
boy,  there  were  scarcely  any  but  very  young  people  who 
could  claim  Georgia  or  any  other  part  of  the  world  than 
Virginia  as  their  birth  place.  Scattered  here  and  there  a 
few  only  were  to  be  found  who  were  born  elsewhere  out  of 
Georgia  than  in  Virginia.  Washington  county,  however, 
in  the  limits  which  it  still  possessed  up  to  the  time  of  the 
present  generation,  must  be  set  down  as  being  an  exception 
to  this  remark.  For  within  those  limits  that  fine  old  county 
was  mainly  colonized  from  North  Carolina  as  I  have  had  the 
best  means  of  knowing,  and  my  heart  will  forever  attest 
what  an  amiable  andgeuerous  people  they  and  their  descend- 
ants were  fifty  years  ago,  for  a  little  earlier  than  then  I  made 
my  debut  in  life  among  them  and  lived  among  them  long 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  5 

enough  to  know  and  love  them  well  and  to  be  loved  by  them 
in  return — so  at  least  it  has  always  been  a  satisfaction  to  me 
to  feel.  Maryland,  too,  sent  a  little  aid,  just  enough  to 
enable  it  to  be  said  that  she  bore  a  part  in  conquering  these 
distant  wilds.  Within  my  puerile  range  of  knowing,  it  was 
but  a  single  family  she  sent,  poor  when  they  came  but  des- 
tined to  great  opulence  drawn  by  toil  from  the  liberal  earth. 
Olten  were  they  called  Chesapikers  and  often  in  boyish  igno- 
rance, I  wondered  why.  With  such  exceptions  as  these,  all 
the  rest,  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  the  elderly,  the  mid- 
dle aged,  the  fully  grown  and  not  a  few  of  the  very  young, 
were  Virginians  born. 

And  not  only  had  they  come  from  Virginia  themselves, 
but  as  the  Trojans  carried  Illium  unto  Italy,  so  did 
they  bring  Virginia  into  Georgia  with  all  her  divinities 
both  of  the  field  and  fireside,  and  they  filially  preserved 
and  perpetuated  her  here, — her  ideas  and  opinions,  her  feel- 
ings and  principles  ;  her  manners,  her  customs,  her  tone 
and  character  as  well  as  her  agriculture,  her  system  of 
labor  and  her  whole  rural  economy.  Nor  was  it  a  small 
district  only  or  a  few  isolated  spots  that  the  Virginians  thus 
overspread  and  impressed  with  their  own  very  superior  type 
of  society  and  civilization,  but  nearly  all  the  best  of  the 
fair  and  extensive  region  lying  between  the  Ogeechee  and 
the  Oconee,  and  that  large  part  besides  of  the  country  be- 
tween, the  Savannah  and  the  Cgeechee  which  was  originally 
comprised  in  the  glorious  old  pre-revolutionary  county  of 
Wilkes,  which  having  been  acquired  from  the  Indians  under 
the  Colonial  regime  only  a  very  short  time  before  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolutionary  war,  was  still  very  thinly  peo- 
pled at  its  close,  and  presented  consequently  very  strong 
attractions  fur  the  best  class  of  emigrants,  who  came  in 
troops  to  those  parts  of  the  State  where  the  lands,  freed 
from  the  Indian  occupancy,  were  yet  wild  and  unappropri- 
ated and,  under  the  old  Head  Right  system,  open  to  the  first 
comers. 

And  now  here  and  heretofore  (in  the  course  of  my  writing 


6  MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

about  the  Oconee  war)  I  have  developed  the  beginnings  of 
that  famed  part  of  the  State,  known  as  Middle  Georgia,  and 
have  found  and  traced  its  germ,  showing  whence  that  germ 
came  and  when,  where  and  how  it  was  first  planted  here, 
and  have  also  shown  what  hard  and  perilous  fortunes  it  had 
for  a  long  time  to  encounter  from  Indian  hostilities  and  incur- 
sions, whilst  striving  to  maintain  itself  and  get  root  and 
thrive  in  its  new  soil.  But  triumphing  by  degrees  over  all 
dangers  and  drawbacks,  and  blest  at  length  with  favorable 
auspices  and  a  long  spell  of  prosperity,  it  struck  wide  and 
deep  into  the  generous  land  into  which  it  had  been  trans- 
planted, and  flourished  apace  not  only  within  its  early  cis- 
Oconee  limits,  but  rapidly  spread  and  propagated  far  beyond 
those  limits  as  new  opening  was  from  time  to  time  made  by 
fresh  acquisitions  of  Indian  territory :  First,  from  the  Oco- 
nee to  the  Ocmulgee  in  1802  and  1805  ;  then  from  the 
Ocmulgee  to  Flint  river  in  1821  ;  and  finally  from  Flint 
river  to  the  Chattahoochee  and  our  present  western  bound- 
ary in  1825, — full  forty-nine  years  ago,  when  at  length  the 
celebrated  Black  Belt  across  the  center  of  the  State  was  com- 
plete and  Middle  Georgia  finished. 

Already,  too,  some  eleven  years  earlier,  the  sword  of  Gen. 
Jackson  had  achieved  a  great  territorial  enlargement  for 
Georgia  on  her  southern  side.  For,  as  we  have  already  had 
occasion  to  tell,  by  the  capitulation  at  Fort  Jackson  in  1814, 
the  Indians  were  entirely  swept  off  by  the  besom  of  con- 
quest from  the  whole  Tallassee  country,  beginning  far  down 
on  the  St.  Mary's  in  the  East  and  stretching  all  along  the 
line  of  the  then  Spanish  province  of  East  Florida  clean  to 
the  Chattahoochee  in  the  West, — being  that  very  Tallassee 
country  for  the  more  easterly  portion  of  which  Gen.  Clark 
and  Gen.  Twiggs,  as  we  have  heretofore  seen,  had  at  Gal- 
phintou  in  1785,  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Indians  ;  a 
treaty,  however,  which  was  not  allowed  to  stand,  having 
been,  as  heretofore  shown,  overslaughed  by  the  treaty  of 
New  York  in  17'JO. 

How  important  an  extension  of  her  jurisdictional  limits 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  7 

the  State  was  thus  laid  under  obligations  to  Gen.  Jackson 
and  his  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson  for,  those  who  are  curious 
to  know  may  learn  by  consulting  Early's  map  of  Georgia 
published  in  1818,  where  the  whole  of  this  new  extension 
on  our  South  is  represented  by  one  great  blank  space,  not 
having  been  at  that  date  yet  surveyed  by  the  State  and 
laid  off  into  counties  or  demarcations  of  any  kind. 

Georgia,  by  the  ab}ve  mentioned  events,  seeing  herself 
finally  rid  everywhere  of  the  Creek  Indians,  began  to  turn 
eager,  impatient  thoughts  to  her  upper  or  Northern  side 
where  the  Cherokees  inhabited,  a  people  who  had  far  out- 
stripped all  our  other  aboriginal  tribes  in  the  progress  to- 
wards civilization,  and  whose  extreme,  immovable  attach- 
ment to  their  ancestral  land  seemed  to  place  an  insuperable 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  ever  acquiring  it  by  peaceful  or 
humane  means.  But  here  again  the  powerful  aid  of  Gen. 
Jackson  was  exerted  in  our  favor,  being  rendered  this  time 
in  his  character  and  functions  as  President  of  the  United 
States.  Before  his  iron  will  and  inflexible  policy,  backed 
by  his  despotic  influence  over  Congress  and  the  country,  all 
opposition  had  to  give  way  alike  among  the  Indians  and 
that  great  mass  of  the  Northern  people  by  whom  their  cause 
was  espoused.  It  is  now  nearly  forty  years  since,  by  the 
consummation  of  his  measures,  the  Cherokees  were  removed 
to  new  homes  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  Georgia  placed  in 
undisturbed  possession  of  the  fine  country  they  left  behind, 
with  all  its  mountains  and  vallies,  its  rich  lands  and  mines, 
its  health-giving  climate  and  waters,  its  charming  diversi- 
fied scenery  and  those  great  commanding  advantages  of  geo- 
graphical formation  and  position  which  make  it  the  eternal 
doorway  and  key  between  the  Southern  Atlantic  and  the 
immense  transmontane  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

SECTION    II. 

I  have  often  thought,  in  these  sad  latter  days,  that  it  was 

*  something  to  be  thankful  for  to  have  lived  in  this  period  of 

interesting  progress  and   development  of  Georgia,  and  to 


8  MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

have  grown  up  witnessing,  from  childhood  to  manly  age, 
this  inspiring  expansion  of  my  native  land,  of  which  one 
effect  surely  was  to  impregn  my  young  mind  with  a  rich, 
varied  store  of  dearly  cherished,  ever-living  memories  con- 
cerning the  State  and  what  I  have  seen  and  known  of  her, 
the  value  whereof,  as  a  resource  of  mental  comfort  and  lux- 
ury, I  have  begun  to  feel  more  sensibly  as  I  grow  older  and 
become  more  dependent  for  my  enjoyments  on  the  laid  up 
treasures  and  recollections  of  the  past.  The  past  is  pecu- 
liarly the  domain  of  old  age,  in  which  it  loves  to  roam  at 
large,  mustering  up  the  dead  whom  it  has  known,  reviving 
bygone  scenes  and  sights,  thoughts  and  feelings,  living  over 
again  its  departed  manhood,  youth  and  even  childhood. 
Alas!  to  how  few  is  such  a  second,  retrospective  life  ever 
accorded  !  And  how  obvious,  too,  that  whether  any  and 
what  sort  of  enjoyment  is  to  be  derived  therefrom,  must  de- 
pend, in  the  case  of  every  individual,  upon  the  nature  and 
character  of  that  past  through  which  he  has  traveled  and  by 
which  his  mind  has  been,  as  it  were,  formed,  peopled  and 
furnished.  Happy  is  he  who  has  a  past  on  which  he  can 
strongly  draw  and  find  amends  for  the  sorrows  and  adversi- 
ties of  the  present!  To  the  young,  ardent,  hopeful;  to  the 
active,  sanguine  seekers  after  pleasure,  riches,  honor;  to  the 
favorites  of  fortune,  who  already  rejoice  in  the  possession  or 
assured  attainment  of  their  respective  objects  of  desire,  this 
resource  cannot  be  expected  to  appear  in  a  very  striking 
light.  But  to  the  aged,  whose  active  career  is  closed,  whose 
earthly  hopes  are  ended,  and  who,  moreover,  lie  prostrate 
and  helpless  under  the  blows  of  fortune,  it  is  a  resource 
second  only  to  the  consolations  of  religion  and  the  concious- 
ness  of  an  upright  life. 

Among  all  the  retrospects  on  which  my  mind  has  long 
loved  to  dwell,  retrospects,  I  mean,  having  relation  to  those 
successive  expansions  and  that  progressive  improvement  of 
my  native  State,  which  have,  to  a  great  extent,  taken  place 
under  my  own  eyes,  as  it  were,  there  have  been  none  so 
dear  and  interesting  as  those  which  carry  me  back  to  the 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  9 

earlier  and  better  days  of  Middle  Georgia — that  Middle 
Georgia  that  was  my  birth  place  and  has  been  my  life-long 
abode,  and  that,  for  long,  long  years,  was  ever  to  me  as  a 
large  earthly  paradise  in  which  1  always  felt  myself  every- 
where at  home  and  in  warm  sympathy  with  every  thing 
around  me.  And  it  is  still  dear  and  precious  to  recall  her 
as  she  WHS  in  her  primal  period  and  high  meridian,  al- 
though now  her  glory  is  gone  and  she  scarce  knows  her 
former  sell  amidst  the  staring  ruin  and  mournful  depression 
which  have  become  her  late. 

Striking  indeed  was  the  spectacle  as  her  fair,  ample  spaces 
presented  themselves  to  view  in  the  several  installments 
of  their  acquisition  and  settlement : — At  the  first, 
spreading  out  in  all  their  unmarred  primeval  grandeur 
and  beauty,  a  vast  and  towering  woodland  scene,  nature's 
ancient,  yet  ever  young,  bjuoming  work — then,  passing  in 
turn  one  after  another,  irorn  the  deep  night  of  barbarism  in 
which  they  had  lain  for  unknown  ages  into  the  sudden  light 
and  life  of  high  civilization.  Elating  to  witness  at  the  time, 
grateful  to  reYnember  ever  since,  the  successive  expandings, 
the  triumphal  unfoldings  of  Georgia  in  this,  her  rich  middle 
belt,  her  very  zone  of  charms,  as  exulting  she  advanced 
by  bound  after  bound  from  East  to  West,  high-strung,  hardy, 
laborious,  "disdaining  little  delicacies,"  trampling  down  ob- 
stacles, disregarding  hardships;  subduing  and  transforming 
rude  nature,  forests  falling  before  her,  the  wilderness  bud- 
ding and  blossoming  as  the  rose  at  her  touch,  rich  crops 
springing  up  all  around  her,  called  forth  by  her  industry 
from  the  willing  earth.  It  was  the  white  man  with  the  axe 
and  the  plow,  the  hammer  and  the  saw,  and  in  all  the  array 
and  habiliments  of  civilization,  superseding  the  Indian  in 
his  hunting  shirt  and  moccasins,  with  his  tomahawk  and 
scalping  knife  and  his  bow  and  arrows.  It  was  Ceres,  with 
her  garland  of  golden  sheaves,  her  basket  and  hoe  and  her 
divine  gait  and  air,  putting  an  end  to  the  reign  of  Pan  and 
the  Satyrs.  And  no  metamorphosis  the  world  ever  saw,  or 
fiction  ever  forged,  was  more  beautiful,  picturesque  and  lovely 


10  MIDDLE   GEORGIA. 

than  the  change  that  was  wrought,  and  wrought,  too,  with 
a  magical  ease  and  suddenness  and  on  a  largness  of  scale 
that  made  the  wonderful  blend  with  the  beautiful  in  the 
successive  panoramas  that  were  presented. 

It  was  a  spectacle  which  will  not  occur  again  ;  it  is  one 
of  those  things  that  has  been  seen  for  the  last  time;  it  will 
never  more  be  repeated.     Nature  exhausted  and  insolvent, 
as  it  were,  in  this  regard,  has  no  more  Middle  Georgias,  no 
more  beautiful,  healthful,  fertile,  well  wooded,  well  watered 
Southern  uplands  to  offer  wild  and  inviolate  as  future  con- 
quests to  Southern  industry  and  civilization  ;  nor  even  if  she 
had,  could  the  other  requisite  conditions  ever  be  hoped  for 
again.     A   mighty,  though    unavowed    revolution,  settling 
down  firmly  into  permanent  bad  government,  has  rendered 
them  impossible.     The  maxims  and  polity  of   our  fathers 
have  been  discarded  and  in  they-  stead  a  senseless,  vindic- 
tive, prostitute  Federal  despotism  now  reigns.     Rioting  and 
rotting  in  low-minded  splendor  and  profligacy,  paralytic  and 
shrunken  on  its  Southern  side,  plethoric  and  bloated  on  its 
Northern,  festering  with  corruption  all  over,  'it  waves  its 
baleful  sceptre  over  us  inflicting  on  these  "delightful  pro- 
vinces of  the  Sun"  a  worse  than  Oriental  fate.     Already  has 
it  succeeded  in  making  us  from  the  richest  and  most  prosper- 
ous people  in  the   world,  the  poorest   and  most   helpless. 
Already  are  its  accursed  effects  widely  seen  and  felt  upon  the 
very  soil  and  face  of  nature,  which  we  behold  rapidly  relapsing 
into  uncultivated  wastes  and  dwarf  woods  of  second  growth, 
requiring  a  second  clearing  and  reclamation  from  hard-work- 
ing human  hands.     And  how  different  a  work  it  will  be 
whenever  it  shall  corne,  from  that  which  in  bygone  days  an- 
imated the  hearts  and  hands  of  the  sturdy  pioneers  of    this 
land  in  their  original  reclaiming  of  it  from  the  wilderness. 
How  little  hopeful,  how  little  elevating  and  stimulating  will 
it  be  in  comparison  !     How  slow  and  thankless,  how  drag- 
ging and   unrewarding  1     And   then  besides,  whence  shall 
come  the  hands  to  do  it?     We  have  them  not  amongst  us. 
Our  whole  system  of  agricultural  labor  is  disorganized  and 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  11 

our  laborers  are  not  only  demoralized  hut  they  hug  their  de- 
moralization to  their  bosoms  as  the  chiefest  boon  of  their 
new  found  freedom.  Nor  is  it  strange  to  those  who  know 
human  nature,  especially  negro  nature,  that  it  should  be  so. 
Is  there,  then,  any  relief  which  may  be  expected  from  abroad? 
Is  there  any  outer  quarter  to  which  we  may  reasonably  look 
for  tho  help  and  reinforcement  we  need?  None  whatever. 
And  most  especially  never  shall  we  again  see  such  another 
migration,  such  another  transplanted  civilization,  as  that 
which  of  yore  poured  from  the  bosom  of  the  mother  of  heroes 
and  statesmen  at  a  most  critical  period  into  the  lap  of  young 
Georgia  and  grew  with  her  growth  and  spread  with  her  ex- 
panding boundaries. 

This  train  of  thought  brings  the  mind  with  force  to  what 
is  now  and  must  long  be  to  us  the  greatest  and  most  mo- 
mentous of  questions.  The  question,  namely,  of  the  renais- 
sance ot  Georgia.  And  first  of  all,  is  sheto  have  a.  renaissance? 
Is  the  Phoenix  ever  to  rise  from  its  ashes?  Shall  Georgia 
ever  emerge  from  her  ruins?  or  is  it  to  be  her  destiny  and 
that  of  her  sisters  of  the  South,  to  swell  the  long  dismal  cata- 
logue of  conquered  States  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  that 
have  never  risen  from  the  blow  that  felled  them,  but  contin- 
ued to  go  down,  down,  till  at  length  they  reached  a  depth 
where,  hopeless  of  recovery,  they  have  ever  since  lain  and 
seemingly  will  forever  lie,  wretched,  submissive,  debased, 
under  the  horse's  hoof,  the  despot's  heel  and  the  brigand's 
knife?  If  such  shall  not  be  our  lot,  it  will  not  be  because 
fortune  is  our  friend  or  all  history  is  not  against  us,  but  it 
will  be  because  we  shall  work  out  our  salvation  from  it  by 
mighty  and  persevering  effort  and  self-denial.  For  it  will 
take  both  in  full  measure  to  rescue  and  save  us.  Yes,  if 
such  is  not  to  be  our  and  our  children's  lot,  it  will  be  because 
deeply  sensible  ot  the  dreadful,  impending  future,  we  shall 
gird  ourselves  up  like  men  to  war  against  it  at  every  point 
and  by  every  means  and  with  all  our  strength  of  body,  soul 
and  mind,  resolved  to  know  no  rest,  no  ease,  till  fate  shall  be 


12  MIDDLE   GEORGIA. 

fairly  conquered  and  chained  to  our  car,  and  Georgia  restor- 
ed to  honor,  prosperity  and  greatness. 

But  let  me  not  run  before  my  work.  In  due  time,  if 
strength  hold  Out  equal  to  my  task,  this  great  question, 
which  constantly  looms  up  to  view,  will  be  reached  and  here 
and  there  handled  as  I  may  best  be  able.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
question  of  appalling  magnitude  and  difficulty,  but  one, 
nevertheless,  from  which  we  may  not  shrink,  one  towards 
the  auspicious  solution  of  which,  every  son  of  Georgia,  how- 
ever humble,  is  bound  to  bring  his  mite  of  aid. 


CHAJPTEH    II. 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA  (continued)  AND  THE  NEGRO. 

Besides  the  very  superior  character  of  the  country  and  the 
first  colonists  and  their  descendants,  there  were  other  causes 
that  lent  their  aid  to  the  rapid  peopling  and  improvement  of 
the  several  successive  new  Purchases,  as  they  were  called, 
that  from  time  to  time  accrued  to  Middle  Georgia — from  its 
beginning  at  the  acquisition  of  the'original  county  of  Wilkes, 
down  to  its  finishing  enlargement  by  the  second  treaty  of  the 
Indian  Springs  in  1825.  Noticeable  among  these  causes  was 
the  lucky  length  of  the  intervals  of  time  that  elapsed  be- 
tween the  different  Purchases,  sufficient  to  enable  each  new 
Purchase  to  become  well  peopled,  prosperous  and  solidified 
before  it  had  to  encounter  competition  for  settlers  with  other 
subsequently  acquired  Indian  lands.  To  which  add  the  ad- 
vantages each  new  Purchase  enjoyed  in  its  turn  from  its 
immediate  contiguity  along  its  whole  eastern  side  to  older, 
well  advanced  settlements  ; — also  that  each  new  acquisition 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  13 

as  it  came  in  its  order,  although  not  very  small,  was  yet  not 
larger  than  was  wanted  for  the  fresh  tide  of  immigration  that 
was  waiting  to  flow  into  it,  and  did  flow  into  it  at  once 
and  fill  it  up  with  an  excellent  population  from  the  very 
outset. 

Furthermore,  whilst  adverting  to  these  favoring  causes, 
let  us  not  forget  that  capital  one — the  humble,  laborious, 
unpaid  hands  by  which  most  of  the  harsh,  heavy  work  was 
done,  and  without  which  such  celerity  of  reclamation  and 
improvement  would  have  been  impossible.  Let  not  the 
poor  negro  and  the  important  part  performed  by  him,  be  left 
without  special  and  in  the  phrase  of  the  schools — honorable 
mention.  Indeed  not  only  in  Middle  Georgia  in  the  several 
installments  of  its  early  settlement,  but  everywhere  and  at 
all  times  in  the  South,  he  was  most  useful  arid  assistant,  and 
justly  acquired  a  hold  more  lasting  than  the  relations  out  of 
which  it  grew,  on  the  kindly  feelings  of  those  whom  he 
served  so  long,  so  loyally  and  so  well.  How  it  is  going  to 
be  with  Southern  men  and  women  a  generation  or  two  hence 
and  afterwards,  cannot  now  be  foreseen.  It  may  be  that 
they  will  get  to  be  quite  as  dead  and  unsympathetic  towards 
the  negro  as  the  negroes  themselves  were  wont  of  old  to  feel 
that  Northern  men  and  women  were  in  comparison  with 
those  of  the  South.  This  undesirable  result  is  certainly  that 
to  which  the  new  order  of  things  seems  to  tend.  But  as  for 
us,  who  were  born  and  bred  in  a  better  day  and  under  more 
propitious  relations  and  influences  than  now  prevail,  such 
deadness  and  want  of  sympathy  may  be  pronounced  impos- 
sible so  long  as  the  negro  continues  to  deport  himself  in  his 
new  state  of  freedom  no  worse  than  he  has  thus  far  done,  in 
Georgia  at  least.  W«  would  be  narrow,  nay  !  even  little  in 
soul,  if  we  did  not  look  with  large  charity  on  the  demorali- 
zation which  the  great  shock  and  change  through  which  he 
has  passed,  have  undoubtedly  wrought  in  him.  For  alas  ! 
are  not  the  evidences  thick  around  us  of  our  having  also  un- 
dergone a  demoralization  not  less  great  and  signal,  from  the 
mighty  shock  and  change,  to  which  we  likewise,  have  been 


14  MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

subjected.  Verily,  kindness  for  the  negro,  a  humane  and 
friendly  feeling  towards  him,  a  true  indescribable  sympathy 
with  him,  began  with  the  lives,  imbued  the  infancy  and 
childhood,  ran  on  with  the  growing  years  of  the  present 
generation  of  Southern  men  and  women,  and  became  so  in- 
timately entwined  with  their  very  natures  as  to  be  ineradica- 
ble except  by  his  own  egregious  and  incorrigible  delinquency 
and  worthlessness.  It  is  our  true  interest  that  he  should  do 
well,  and  attain  to  a  higher  level  in  morals,  merit  and  intel- 
ligence. Never  shall  we  be  disposed  to  underrate  him,  or  to 
withhold  from  him  a  generous  credit  for  all  that  he  shall 
deserve  in  the  future,  any  more  than  a  just  remembrance  of 
all  he  has  done  in  the  past. 

He  is  emphatically  the  child  of  the  Sun,  born  of  his  most 
burning  rays,  and  happily  framed  to  live  and  labor, 
strengthen  and  exult  under  his  fiercest  glare,  in  the  most 
firery  climes.  He  is  also  eminently  submissive,  cheerfully 
servile  in  his  nature,  and  apt  and  docile  in  a  high  degree  in 
things  that  hold  rather  of  the  hand  than  of  the  mind.  In 
all  respects  he  met  our  Southern  agricultural  and  domestic 
needs  most  admirably  ;  and  certainly  among  the  great  ser- 
vices he  rendered  us,  that  in  which  he  was  most  important, 
was  the  conquest  of  the  forest  and  the  subjugation  of  rude 
nature  to  the  axe,  the  plow  or  the  hoe.  It  is  impossible  to 
look  back  on  the  immense  amount  of  hard,  heavy,  valuable 
work  done  by  him  in  first  opening  the  country  for  culture, 
and  afterwards  as  a  life-long  laborer  in  the  very  fields  clear- 
ed by  him,  and  then  reverse  the  picture  and  gaze  upon  the 
widespread  ruin  he  was  subsequently  made  the  involuntary, 
unwitting  cause,  (for  he  was  the  cause  of  the  war  and  all  its 
consequences)  of  bringing  upon  the  scenes  of  his  previous 
useful  industry,  without  being  painfully  impressed  in  rela- 
tion to  him.  How  strikingly  has  it  been  his  lot  to  be  forced 
to  be  in  the  beginning,  a  blessing,  in  the  end  a  curse  to  us 
and  our  land  !  Yes  !  forced  both  in  the  one  case  and  the 
other.  And  now  he  has  become  a  sore  problem  indeed  ;  a 
warring,  unnatural,  morbific  element  in  society,  incapable  of 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  15 

assimilation  with  the  body  politic,  upon  which  he  has  been 
hitched,  as  it  were,  by  sheer  extraneous  violence,  and  by 
a  tie  quite  as  baleful  and  criminal  as  that  by  which  the  fa- 
bled tyrant  Mezentius.  chained  the  bodies  of  the  dead  to 
the  living.  Can  the  living  ever  impart  life  and  health  to 
the  dead  through  a  bond  so  revolting  ?  Will  not  the  dead 
rather  impart  their  own  death  and  putrifaction  to  the  living? 
And  do  they  who,  on  the  horrid  maxim  that  there  can  be 
nothing  wrong  towards  the  vanquished,  have  inflicted  this 
monstrous  wrong  on  us  and  on  human  nature  itself,  and  who 
are  still  exulting  over  their  helpless  victims, — do  they  cheat 
themselves  with  the  idea  that  God  is  no  longer  just,  and  that 
the  terrible  curse  of  bad,  wicked  Government  which  they 
have  vindictively  fastened  on  us]and  our  posterity,  will  not 
react  in  some  way  on  themselves  and  make  them  and  theirs 
writhe  in  long  retributive  agony  under  the  eventual  conse- 
quences of  their  unprecedented  crime?  For  how  can  that 
great  mass  of  ignorance,  depravity  and  shameless  unfitness, 
which  they  have  clothed  with  the  awful  power  of  Government 
throughout  the  South,  be  prevented  from  working  its  deadly 
effects  in  National  as  well  as  in  State  affairs  ;  from  sending 
corruption  and  ruin  through  the  body  politic  of  the  Union,  as 
well  as  through  those  of  its  oppressed  and  outraged  Southern 
members  ? 

Such  is  the  appalling  problem  now  before  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  that  must  needs  be  worked  out  for  everlasting  weal 
or  woe  in  reference  to  the  negro  ;  whose  mission  upon  earth, 
whether  viewed  as  he  is  and  always  has  been  in  Africa,  or  as  he 
was  and  is  in  America,  is  truly  one  of  the  dreariest  and  most 
impenetrable  of  the  mysteries  of  God.  Nor  is  it  rendered  the 
less  dreary  and  impenetrable  by  recent  events  in  this  great 
nation.  In  no  age  of  the  world  has  he  ever  emerged  from 
barbarism  and  slavery  on  his  own  continent.  Hideous 
land  !  where  children  are  the  slaves  of  their  parents,  and 
daily  sold  by  them  into  slavery  to  others,  without  a  pang  ! 
where  every  subject  is  the  slave  of  his  Prince  or  Chief, 
legally  saleable  by  him  to  any  purchaser  that  comes  or  can 


16  MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

be  found,  just  like  an  ox  or  an  elephant's  tooth!  Where 
every  man,  woman  and  child  is  liahle  at  any  moment  to  be 
seized  and  sold  into  slavery,  singly  or  in  droves,  by  any  horde 
of  robbers  that  can  succeed  in  catching  them  by  night  or  by 
day,  and  where  life  is  as  little  respected  as  liberty  ! 

Such  is  the  negro's  immemorial  normal  condition  in 
Africa.  And  who  shall  say  that  Heaven  in  revealing  the 
American  continent,  did  not  design  it  as  an  asylum  for  him, 
too,  as  well  as  for  the  European  ?  But  what  sort  of  asylum 
and  an  asylum  for  him  in  what  character  ?  Not  certainly 
in  that  of  a  freeman,  a  citizen,  a  voter,  an  office-holder  or 
legislator,  for  all  which  he  was  wretchedly  unfit,  but  as 
an  asylum  for  him  in  the  character  or  status,  which  attached 
to  him  in  his  own  country,  and  in  which  alone  he  could  be 
anything  but  a  nuisance  in  ours.  And  if  he  did  not  escape 
entirely  from  the  miseries  and  debasement  of  his  African 
condition  by  being  brought  to  these  Southern  States  and 
planted  here  in  his  African  status,  he  at  least  escaped  from 
them  in  large  part  and  as  far  as  he  was  worthy  of  escaping, 
or  as  it  was  for  his  good  to  escape.  He  exchanged  a  worse 
and  a  barbarous  for  a  better  a  civilized  form  of  slavery,  an 
exchange  which  was  at  once  a  blessing  to  him,  to  us,  and  to 
mankind,  and  to  which  he  was  not  only  indebted  for  a  strik- 
ing betterment  of  his  condition,  physical,  moral,  religious, 
but  for  all  of  civilization  and  Christianity  he  has  ever  at- 
tained. It  is  undeniable,  that  instead  of  being  worsted  and 
debased  by  falling  into  our  hands,  his  condition  has  been 
ameliorated  and  his  nature  elevated.  Under  our  beneficent 
despotism,  he  was  reclaimed  from  the  grossest  barbarism  and 
superstition  and  trained  up  to  a  degree  of  civilization  and 
religious  culture  from  which  it  is  yet  uncertain  whether  the 
gift  of  freedom  will  carry  him  up  higher  or  drag  him  down  lower. 
Behold  then  what  the  Southern  system  of  slavery  has  done 
for  the  negro  !  And  yet  Christendom  has  permitted  itself  to 
be  shocked  and  stultified  in  regard  to  it  and  to  be  kindled 
into  an  insane  rage  against  us  because  of  our  supposed  in- 
human and  unchristian  wrongs  towards  him.  Strange 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA.  17 

inhumanity,  which  betters  the  condition  of  its  victims  ! 
Strange  unchristianess  which  christianizes  those  on  whom  it 
is  practiced  ! 

The  South  has  a  stake  incomparably  greater  than  all  the 
world  besides  in  the  tremendous  experiment  that  has  been, 
by  mere  force  of  hostile  arms,  set  on  foot  on  her  soil  and 
is  now  proceeding  in  her  midst  and  at  her  sole  cost,  yet  un- 
der a  vindictive,  unenlightened  exterior  guidance  and  direc- 
tion. It  will  be  the  miracle  of  miracles  if  it  succeeds.  If  by 
the  blessing  of  Heaven,  overruling  the  crimes  and  folly  of 
men,  such  miracle  should  happen,  our  dear  Southern  land 
may  hope  eventually  to  rise  from  her  ruin,  a  new  creation,  a 
veritable  reconstruction,  a  true  re-growth  of  order,  strength, 
virtue  and  prosperity.  But  should  the  experiment  fail,  St. 
Domingo,  Jamaica  and  sundry  miserable,  mestizo,  anarchic 
Republics  of  Spanish  America  have  already  supplied  exam- 
ples of  what  is  to  be  our  lasting  doom.  Moreover,  if  it  fails, 
the  world  will  soon  witness  the  beginning  of  a  mighty  reac- 
tion on  the  whole  subject  of  negro  slavery.  The  demonstra- 
tion will  then  be  deemed  perfect  of  the  negro's  congenital 
and  hopeless  unsuitableness  for  freedom,  and  men  will  re- 
lapse everywhere  into  the  old  and  for  ages  uncontroverted 
opinion  that  slavery  is  the  best  and  therefore  a  just  condition 
for  him,  and  that  is  by  far  the  most  useful  disposition  that 
can  be  made  of  him  in  reference  to  the  general  interests  of 
mankind.  Again,  over-crowded  Europe  and  North  America 
will  be  compelled,  a  century  or  two  hence,  by  that  necessity 
which  is  its  own  and  only  law,  to  turn  wistful  eyes  towards 
the  vast  tropical  and  semi-tropical  wilds  of  this  continent, 
and  to  ponder  the  question  how  they  may  best  be  made 
available  for  the  habitation  and  sustenance  of  their  redun- 
dant millions.  And  then  in  case  the  grand  trial  now  proceed- 
ing here  of  the  fitness  of  the  negro  for  freedom,  shall  result 
against  him  in  the  judgment  of  an  enlightened,  catholic 
public  opinion,  negro  slavery  will  rise  up  stronger  than  ever 
in  men's  minds,  and  the  negro  aid  will  be  once  more  invok- 
ed to  solve  the  distressing  problem  of  American  and  Europe- 


18  MIDDLE  GEORGIA. 

an  wants  by  a  life  of  compulsory  labor.  Compulsory,  but 
not  incompensated  or  unregulated,  it  is  to  be  hoped.  For 
there  is  no  condition  in  society  more  admitting  of  regulation 
and  modification  than  slavery.  And  surely  an  intelligent 
and  healthy  philanthrophy,  aided  by  the  growing  wisdom 
and  experience  of  Christendom,  will  be  able  to  find  means  of 
reconciling  humanity  and  justice  to  the  negro  with  his  en- 
forced civilization  and  usefulness  in  the  world. 

Why  should  nations  have  more  bowels  for  the  negro  than 
for  their  own  people  ?  Is  tenderness  for  their  own  citizens  or 
subjects  a  characteristic  of  Governments  when  it  conflicts 
with  their  policy,  passions  or  ambition?  Do  they  not 
at  their  pleasure  tear  their  own  men  of  youthful  and 
middle  age  away  from  poor  old  parents,  from  dependant 
wives  and  children,  and  drive  them  at  the  point  of  the  bay- 
onet, into  a  military  slavery,  compared  with  which,  that  of 
our  by-gone  cotton  and  tobacco  fields  and  rice  and  sugar 
plantations  might  well  be  hailed  as  an  Elysium  ?  And  do 
they  not  pitilessly  force  them  into  the  front  ranks  of  battle 
as  "food  for  gun  powder/ 'whilst  the  magnates  and  leaders  for 
whom  they  are  mangled  and  butchered,  and  to  whom  all  the 
fruits  of  their  immolation  are  to  enure,  skulk  at  home  or  far 
in  the  rear,  safe  contemplators  of  the  scene?  And  if  from 
actual  war  and  its  perils  they  chance  to  come  out  with  their 
lives,  what  is  then  their  fate  ?  They  are  either  kept  under 
arms  still  as  engines  of  tyranny  over  their  own  countrymen 
in  times  of  peace,  or  they  are  sent  back  to  their  homes  and 
beggared  firesides  to  encounter  squalid  poverty  and  grinding 
taxation.  Such  is  the  treatment  by  all  nations  of  their  own 
people  when,  they  chose  to  call  for  their  service  as  soldiers. 
With  this  more  than  analogous  case,  so  unanswerable  and 
so  suggestive,  constantly  before  our  eyes,  it  is  certainly 
not  very  illogical  to  suppose  that  the  time  will  return  when 
the  negro  will  be  forced  to  work  as  well  as  the  soldier  to 
fight,  if  he  will  network  otherwise,  particularly  in  climes 
under  whose  fervid  suns,  he  and  he  alone  has  been  consti- 
tuted by  the  Almighty  capable  of  the  perennial  labor 


MIDDLE   GEORGIA.  19 

which  a  state  of  civilization  and  civilized  agriculture  alike 
require.  How  monstrous,  that  cultivated  and  Christian 
men  throughout  all  Christian  nations  should  be  continually 
subjected,  by  millions  on  millions,  to  be  sacrificed,  brutalized 
and  demonized  by  a  horrid  sevitude  in  the  bloody  trade  of 
war,  and  that  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  nations,  the 
slaves  and  savages  of  Africa  should  be  the  pets  of  a  fatuous 
philanthrophy  which  cries  out  against  their  being  made  to 
submit  to  a  system  of  labor  and  discipline  humane  and  be- 
neficent, civilizing  and  christianizing  in  its  character  and 
effects  ? 

For  the  present,  however,  and  for  a  long  time  to  come,  if 
ever,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  hope  that  the  negro's  useful- 
ness among  us,  as  compared  with  former  times,  can  be  re- 
stored. His  future,  as  well  as  our  own,  is  involved  in  dark- 
ness and  anxiety.  Fortunate  will  it  be  for  his  posterity 
and  ours,  if  any  length  of  years  shall  ever  bring  about  mu- 
tual relations  as  favorable  for  both  sides  as  those  which  war 
has  destroyed.  The  same  state  of  relations  can  never, 
should  never  be  attempted  to  be  established  again.  Their 
attempted  re-establishment  would  lead  to  a  shock  and  ruin 
even  worse  than  that  which  has  been  the  result  of  their  sud- 
den and  forcible  destruction.  All  we  can  do  is  to  wait  for 
time  and  circumstances,  to  enable  us  from  the  present 
ruin  to  work  out  the  best  possible  reconstruction  for  the 
remote  future.  In  the  meantime,  the  mind  cannot  help  re- 
curring often,  especially  when  in  its  mournful  moods,  to  our 
never-to-be-repeated  Past,  a  Past  that  was  in  its  day  griev- 
ously misunderstood  by  the  outside  world,  and  which 
abounded  in  many  things  that  will  long  be  cherished  as 
pleasant  remembrances,  as  well  by  the  negro  as  by  the  white 
man,  among  which  there  will  be  none  more  pleasant  than 
those  connected  with  their  commingled  life  and  labors  in  the 
several  new  settlements,  by  which  from  time  to  time  Middle 
Georgia  was  by  successive  leaps  expanded  and  developed 
into  her  full  richness  and  beauty. 


20  MIDDLE  GEORGIA  AND  LAND  LOTTERY. 


CHAPTER    III. 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA  (continued)  AND  THE  LAND 
LOTTERY  SYSTEM. 

But  not  only  was  it  the  negro  and  the  other  causes  I  have 
noticed  that  imparted  extraordinary  animation  and  impulse 
to  the  new  settlements  in  Middle  Georgia  in  their  infancy. 
Nay,  say  not  in  their  infancy,  for  infancy  except  in  its  better 
and  lovelier  sense,  they  never  had.  They  burst  forth  full 
grown,  panoplied  and  almost  perfect  from  their  very  birth. 
This  interesting  truth  I  had  long  and  large  opportunities  of 
personally  observing  and  knowing.  From  the  time  I  was 
a  small  boy,  I  was  much  in  Putnam  county  on  visits  to  rela- 
tions, who  had  moved  thither  from  Hancock.  Putnam  was 
then  but  a  few  years  old  and  I  continued  to  be  a  frequent 
visitor  there  throughout  my  boyhood,  youth  and  early  man- 
hood, enjoying  all  the  time  the  best  means  of  seeing  and 
observing.  Indeed,  the  last  half  of  the  year  1818,  I  lived 
in  Eatonton,  then  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  flourishing  and 
refined  up-country  towns  the  State  ever  boasted,  with  a  clas- 
sical Academy  of  the  highest  order  and  an  overwhelming 
patronage,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Dr.  Alonzo  Church, 
subsequently  for  many  years  President  of  Franklin  College. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  Young  Ladies  Academy  of  not 
less  repute  and  merit.  As  a  seat  of  education  Eatonton  was 
at  that  date  second  only  to  Mt.  Zion  in  Hancock,  the  re- 
nowned Seminary  of  that  extraordinary  man,  the  Elder  Be- 
man — Franklin  College,  which  had  gone  down  during  the 
war  of  1812,  under  the  Presidency  of  Dr.  Brown,  being  now 
again  in  a  state  of  utter  collapse,  which  lasted  some  two 
years,  consequent  upon  the  death,  in  1817,  of  the  new  Pres-. 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA  AND  LAND  LOTTERY.  2 1 

ident,  the  long  and  deeply  lamented  Dr.  Finley.  In  my 
after  years  I  have  often  thoughtfully  recalled  all  I  ever  saw 
or  knew  of  Putnam  county,  from  my  earliest  to  my  latest 
acquaintance  and  observation  there,  and  compared  the  coun- 
ty and  people  as  known  to  me  from  first  to  last  with  what  I 
have  seen  and  known  of  the  best  agricultural  districts  and 
I  populations  in  and  out  of  Georgia,  and  I  can  aver  that  if  in 
all  the  characteristics  of  a  sterling  civilization,  Putnam 
county  ever  had  a  novitiate  or  minority,  it  had  passed  away 
and  all  traces  of  it  had  vanished  before  my  knowledge  of  her 
commenced.  And  what  was  true  of  Putnam  was  equally  so 
of  much  the  larger  portions  of  Baldwin,  Jones,  Jasper  and 
Morgan,  for  they  had  like  advantages  of  soil,  climate,  &c., 
with  Putnam  and  a  like  superior  population  of  first  settlers. 
Again,  the  settlement  of  Monroe  county  and  the  country  be- 
tween the  Ocmulgee  and  Flint  rivers,  began  in  1822,  having 
been  acquired  from  the  Indians  the  year  before  by  the  first 
treaty  at  the  Indian  Springs.  In  the  beginning  of  1827,  I 
transferred  my  residence  to  Monroe,  as  a  centre  for  the  prac- 
tice of  my  profession,  and  soon  became  well  acquainted  with 
the  people,  the  county  and  all  pertaining  to  them.  I  was 
greatly  struck.  I  had  seen  by  this  time  a  good  deal  of  the 
world,  both  in  the  North  and  the  South,  and  was  qualified 
to  make  comparisons  and  I  could  not  get  over  my  admiration 
of  the  growth  and  advancement  of  Monroe  county.  Such, 
indeed,  was  already  her  advancment  that  there  was  no  room 
left  for  further  progress  except  in  clearing  more  land  and 
gradually  substituting  fine  framed  and  painted  houses  for 
the  not  less  commodious  log  structures,  which  are  necessari- 
ly the  earliest  style  of  building  in  all  new  countries.  She 
had  already  a  very  dense  population  of  the  very  best  charac- 
ter, with  the  smallest  possible  admixture  of  bad  or  inferior 
elements.  She  had,  too,  plenty  of  well  built  churches  of 
ample  size,  at  convenient  points  throughout  the  county,  and 
a  stated  ministry  and  regular  services  and  a  full  attendance 
of  worshipers  in  every  church.  Good  schools,  likewise,  she 
had  in  every  neighborhood,  and  he  who  attended  the  gath- 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA  AND  LAND  LOTTERY. 

erings  of  her  people  at  churches,  military  reviews,  elections 
and  other  public  occasions,  or  saw  them  as  a  friend,  visitor 
or  stranger,  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  their  homes,  could  not 
help  being  impressed  with  their  moral  worth  and  tone,  their 
manifest  respectability  and  intelligence,  as  well  as  their  ob- 
vious worldly  thrift,  industry  and  prosperity.  What  is  thus 
said  of  Monroe  was  applicable  also  to  the  surrounding  new 
counties  though  not  in  altogether  so  strong  a  degree.  For 
Monroe  was  considered  the  crack  county  of  that  Purchase. 
And  now  lastly,  1827  was  the  first  year  of  the  settlement  of 
the  then  new  territory  between  the  Flint  and  Chattahoochee, 
and  from  that  time  I  took  my  semi-annual  rounds  for  several 
years  in  the  practice  of  law  through  a  number  of  new  coun- 
ties and  I  can  affirm  from  thorough  personal  observation 
that  Troup,  Meriwether,  Coweta,  Harris,  Talbot  and  Musco- 
gee  never  knew  a  low,  coarse,  or  rude  state  of  society.  They 
stood  from  the  very  outset  fully  abreast  with  the  best  por- 
tions of  the  State  in  all  those  things  which  constitute  the 
pride  and  glory,  the  lovliness  and  charm  of  virtuous  and 
flourishing  agricultural  communities.  How  could  it  have 
been  otherwise?  Their  immigration  was  mainly  from  the 
finest  parts  of  the  State,  homogeneous,  and  composed  of  peo- 
ple equal  in  wealth,  culture  and  all  other  advantages  to  the 
best  whom  they  left  behind,  just  as  had  been  the  case  with 
the  first  settlers  of  the  several  preceding  new  Purchases  fur- 
ther East.  Families  of  substance  and  even  of  affluence,  of 
the  highest  standing,  accustomed  to  all  that  is  desirable  in 
life,  to  all  that  wealth,  education  and  their  adjuncts  could 
bring,  sold  out  and  quit  their  old  homes  and  hied  to  the 
new  virgin  wilds  with  absolute  alacrity  and  enjoyment. 
And  why?  Because  they  knew  beforehand  amongst  what 
sort  and  how  superior  a  sort  of  people  they  would  at  once 
find  themselves  in  their  new  locations,  and  that  all  the  ad- 
vantages and  blessings  of  the  older  settlements  they  were 
leaving  would  be  without  delay  transplanted  along  with 
them.  Moreover,  and  it  was  an  important  item  in  the  case, 
they  went  attended  by  their  happy  gangs  of  hardy  negroes, 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA   AND   LAND   LOTTERY.  23 

their  faithful,  trained  servants  of  the  field  and  fireside,  who 
quite  unconscious  themselves  of  the  much  exaggerated  hard- 
ships and  discomforts  of  a  new  country,  were  certainly  a 
means  of  making  them  unfelt  by  their  masters  and  mis- 
tresses and  hy  those  whom  they  were  apt  to  love  still  more, 
their  young  masters  and  young  mistresses. 

But  I  must  hid  adieu  to  this  seductive  digression  into 
which  I  have  rather  abruptly  fallen  at  the  moment  when  I 
was  approaching  another  topic  of  a  very  different  nature  and 
which  I  must  not  allow  myself  to  neglect.  I  allude  to  the 
Land  Lottery  System,  a  device  ior  converting  public  lands 
into  private  ownership,  so  novel,  peculiar  and  curious  and 
so  full,  besides,  of  practical  consequences,  that  it  would  be 
a  capital  omission  not  to  notice  it  treating  of  the  original 
peopling  of  the  trans-Oconee  country.  For  it  was  there  the 
system  had  its  origin  early  in  the  present  century,  being 
first  applied  by  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  in  the  year  1803  to 
the  then  new  Purchase,  being  the  first  beyond  the  Oconee, 
from  whence  it  was  afterwards  extended  to  all  our  subse- 
quent territorial  acquisitions  wherever  situated,  as  they  from 
time  to  time  came  to  hand.  And,  as  it  so  happened  that 
none  of  them  were  East  of  the  Oconee,  that  river  thus  be- 
came, in  addition  to  its  other  historical  pretensions,  the 
dividing  line  forever  along  its  whole  length  between  the 
portions  of  the  State  organized  and  settled  under  this  new 
system  and  those  peopled  under  the  old  Head  Right  mode. 
All  East  of  the  Oconee  is  Head  Right,  all  West  Land  Lottery. 
Why  the  old  mode  so  long  in  use  in  Geor'giaand  everywhere 
else  in  Anglo-America,  was  abandoned  by  our  fathers  and 
the  plan  of  the  Land  Lottery  adopted  in  its  stead,  is  cer- 
tainly an  interesting  question,  and  one  the  answer  to  which 
will,  in  all  likelihood,  be  wholly  lost  in  a  few  generations 
more.  For  contemporaneous  history  has,  I  believe,  over- 
looked the  matter  as  beneath  its  dignity,  nor  do  I  know  that 
there  is  any  account  of  the  reasons  to  be  found  any  where  on 
record  or  in  print.  Yet  tradition  has  preserved  them  thus 
far,  and  those  who  will  search  among  the  peculiar  circum- 


24          MIDDLE  GEORGIA  AND  LAND  LOTTERY. 

stances  which  occurred  in  Georgia  during  the  last  years  of 
the  last  century,  will  find  in  them  also  a  clear  solution  of  the 
novelty — for  novelty  our  Land  Lottery  system  undoubtedly 
was.  None  greater  and  more  striking  has  ever  occurred  in 
the  polity  of  any  country,  in  regard  to  its  public  lands.  It 
was  a  thing  wholly  new  under  the  sun.  No  precedent  for  it 
existed  on  all  the  files  of  the  past.  There  was  not  any 
where  the  shadow  of  a  likeness  to  it,  nothing  analagous 
even.  Georgia  originated  and  contrived  it  out  of  whole  cloth, 
and  at  once  it  acquired  a  strong  popularity  here  which  it 
never  lost.  And  yet  no  favor  or  following  out  of  Georgia 
did  it  ever  find.  It  was  never  copied  or  imitated  anywhere 
else,  consequently  as  soon  as  the  State's  public  domain  was 
exhausted  and  no  more  lands  remained  to  be  distributed,  the 
invention  died  out  at  once  right  here  on  the  spot  of  its  birth, 
and  is  now  laid  away  forever  among  the  innumerable  by- 
gone things  interesting  and  important  in  their  day,  but 
which  are  never  more  to  be  repeated  or  seen. 

In  some  respects  the  two  systems  of  Head  Rights  and  the 
Land  Lottery,  were  not  unlike.  In  both  the  aim  was  not 
the  enrichment  of  the  treasury  so  much  as  the  rapid  settling 
and  development  of  the  country.  Having  this  main  object 
in  view,  they  both  regarded  the  public  domain  in  the  light 
of  a  great  fund  to  be  distributed  in  free  gifts  or  allotments  of 
land  among  the  people.  It  was  in  the  mode  of  effecting  this 
distribution  that  their  difference  consisted.  The  manner 
under  the  Head  Right  System  was,  to  treat  the  whole  country 
as  one  great  blank,  open  to  free  competition,  under  the  rule 
that  the  first  comers  should  he  first  served  and  all  served  in 
the  order  of  their  coming.  The  process  accordingly  was  to 
issue  to  individual  applicants,  upon  their  paying  certain  of- 
fice fees  and  also  sometimes  an  almost  nominal  price  for 
the  lands,  certain  authentic  documents  variously  entitled 
Head  Rights,  Land  Warrants  or  Warrants  of  Survey,  by 
locating  which  on  any  particular  lands,  such  individual  ap- 
plicants become  the  owners  of  those  lands  and  entitled  to 
have  a  grant  issued  by  the  State  therefor,  provided  no  body 


MIDDLE  GEORGIA   AND   LAND   LOTTERY.  25 

else  had  already  taken  up  and  appropriated  the  same  land. 
This  mode,  however,  though  so  universal,  was  always  liable 
to  considerable  objections.  Under  it  land  titles  were  much 
exposed  to  difficulties  and  litigation  by  reason  of  the  same 
surface  being  often  covered  and  always  being  more  or  less  in 
danger  of  being  covered  by  conflicting  Warrants  or  Head 
Rights  in  favor  of  divers  persons.  And  this  danger  was 
everywhere  greater  in  proportion  as  the  lands  were  more  de- 
sirable and  more  sought  after.  Also  the  poorer  and  less  at- 
tractive lands  would  be  neglected  and  very  slowly  taken  up, 
so  that  from  both  causes  combined,  the  country  was  very  apt 
to  become  in  the  richer  localities,  a  hot  bed  of  law  suits  and 
conflicting  claims,  and,  in  the  poorer,  a  confused  patchwork 
of  appropriated  and  unappropriated  or  vacant  lands,  which 
would  eventuate  in  making  it  difficult  to  know  and  pick  out 
what  was  vacant  from  what  was  not  vacant.  Moreover,  to 
the  great  majority  of  people,  especially  widows,  orphans, 
unmarried  women  and  to  the  very  poor  generally,  it  was 
not  only  onerous  but  next  to  impossible  to  make  the  person- 
al explorations,  without  which  the  right  to  take  out  and 
locate  Head  Rights  was  almost  worthless.  To  all  which 
if  we  add  the  frequent  errors,  inaccuracies  and  abuses  grow- 
ing out  of  an  ill-contrived,  incompetent  and  untrustworthy  of- 
ficial machinery,  we  behold  a  formidable  mass  of  evils  the 
tendency  of  which  was  to  obstruct  settlement  and  throw  the 
best  lands  into  the  hands  of  speculators  and  the  rich  and 
crafty,  to  the  exclusion  pf  a  class  who  were  by  far  the  most 
proper  objects  of  public  bounty. 

It  was,  however,  much  less  as  an  escape  from  these  long 
familiar  and  therefore  not  much  regarded  evils,  than  as  a 
violent,  virtuous,  indignant  reaction  against  two  huge,  new 
fangled  villainies,  which  were  still  recent  and  in  their  inten- 
sest  odium,  that  the  Land  Lottery  system  first  suggested 
itself  in  Georgia,  and  found  universal  favor,  and  was 
adopted,  and  permanently  pursued  by  the  State  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  other  modes  of  disposing  of  her  public  lands. 
These  two  great  villainies  were  the  Pine  Barren  Specula- 


2G  MIDDLE    GEORGIA    AND    LAND    LOTTERY. 

tion  of  1794-5,  and  the  Yazoo  Fraud  of  the  same  era.  In- 
censed to  the  highest  degree  by  these  two  monstrous  in- 
iquities practised  upon  the  honor  and  property  of  the  State, 
whereby  organized  bands  of  corrupt  and  corrupting  specu- 
lators Avere  enabled  to  cheat,  swindle  and  make  profit  to  the 
tune  of  millions, — the  honest,  outraged  people  of  Georgia 
resolved  that  in  all  subsequent  dispositions  of  their  public 
lands  they  would  sacrifice  all  other  objects  to  the  paramount 
one  of  closing  every  door  and  providing  every  security 
against  the  future  perpetration  of  such  like,  or  any  other 
land  frauds  or  villainies.  Out  of  this  feeling  so  honorable 
and  redeeming  to  the  State,  was  born  the  Land  Lottery 
System.  Under  it  the  public  lands,  as  they  were  from  time 
to  time  freed  from  Indian  occupancy,  were  at  public  cost  sur- 
veyed into  small  lots  of  uniform  size,  and  marked,  num- 
bered and  mapped,  and  the  whole  returned  to  the  Surveyor 
General's  Office,  from  whence  by  commissioners  chosen  by 
the  Legislature  for  the  purpose,  the  State  caused  all  the  lots 
to  be  thrown  into  the  Lottery  wheel,  and  to  become  fortune's 
gifts  as  well  as  her  own  to  her  people. 

By  this  course  it  is  obvious,  every  temptation  and  means 
for  the  practice  of  fraud  and  corruption  was  taken  away. 
For  who  was  going  to  bribe  the  members  of  the  Legislature 
or  other  public  functionaries,  high  or  low,  when  it  was  ren- 
dered utterly  impossible  by  the  very  system  adopted,  for  the 
corruptor  to  make  or  secure  anything  by  means  of  the  brib- 
ery? Who  would  ever  think  of  bribing  surveyors  to  meas- 
ure or  mark  lots  falsely  or  make  forged  or  fictitious  returns 
of  surveys,  when  nobody  could  possibly  know  or  foresee  to 
whom  any  particular  lots  would  be  drawn,  in  the  corning 
lottery?  And  how  could  speculators,  single  or  combined, 
practice  frauds  upon  the  State,  in  regard  to  the  lands,  where 
every  lot  of  land  had  already  passed  out  of  the  State  into  pri- 
vate ownership,  before  it  could  become  an  object  of  speculation? 

In  addition  to  all  which  it  was  a  high  recommendation  of 
the  system  that  it  gave  to  all,  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich, 
to  the  feeble  as  well  as  the  strong,  to  women  as  well  as  to 
men,  and  to  widows  and  to  orphans,  an  equal  and  fair 


THE   PINE   MOUNTAIN.  27 

chance.  It  also  gave  instantly  to  every  lot  of  land,  an  owner 
with  an  unquestionable  title,  and  by  this  means,  and  by 
preventing  the  accumulation  of  large  bodies  of  land  in  the 
hands  of  (speculative  individuals  and  companies,  it  promoted 
greatly  the  rapid  settlement  and  improvement  of  the  new  re- 
gions, beyond  any  other  system  that  could  have  been  devised. 


IV. 


THE  PINE  MOUNTAIN. 

Nature,  when  she  drew  near  the  completion  of  Middle 
Georgia,  ere  she  put  her  finishing  hand  to  the  work,  paused 
and  said  :  What,  shall  be  the  last  touch  ?  What  crowning 
gift  shall  I  bestow  ?  What  impress  set  that  shall  never  be- 
come commonplace?  What  proud,  striking  feature  call 
forth  on  this  Westernmost  expanse  that  shall  make  it  unique 
among  the  Midlands  of  the  South,  a  charm  and  a  glory  to  all 
beholders  and  through  all  time  ? 

And  she  said  I  will  give  it  a  mountain,  a  mountain  where 
mountains  are  not  wont  to  be  ;  a  mountain,  too,  rich  in 
precious  inner  treasures  as  well  as  in  charms  attractive  to  the 
eye.  And  as  she  spake,  Behold  !  Earth,  heaved  and  the  Pine 
Mountain  uprose  in  modest  grandeur  and  beauty,  adorned 
as  to  its  umbrageous  sides  and  fertile,  close  clinging  valleys 
and-breezy  cerulean  summits,  not  only  with  pines,  but  with 
other  trees  also  unnumerable.  Far  down  to  the  South,  it 
uprose  in  lonely  loveliness  and  isolation,  further  down,  and 
nearer  to  the  sea,  by  more  than  one  hundred  miles,  than 
any  other  mountain,  or  mountain  knob,  or  outlier.  And 
at  its  Eastern  end,  nature  allowed  a  little  river,  the  first 
that  turned  away  from  the  Atlantic  slope  and  went  to 
woo  the  blue  waters  of  the  Gulf,  to  pierce  its  yet  unharden- 


28  THE   PINE   MOUNTAIN. 

ed  mass,  and  to  seek  the  sea  in  a  straight,  onward  course 
through  its  disrupted  sides.  But  as  the  young  mountain 
grew  towards  the  West,  it  grew  also  compact  and  rock- 
ribhed.  It  swelled  out  larger  and  towered  up  higher,  and 
at  length  after  stretching  away  for  some  fifty  miles,  became 
too  strong  for  even  the  mighty  Chattahoochee,  child  of  the 
eternal  Alleghanies,  forcing  the  impetuous  river  to  bend 
conquered  around  its  Western  base,  and  to  go  fretting,  foam- 
ing, writhing,  tumbling  over  many  a  mile  of  rocky,  unre- 
lenting rapids  down  to  where  Columbus  sits  in  long  waiting 
at  the  foot  of  those  first  falls  and  all  their  vast  water  power. 
But  mourn  not,  fair  Coweta,*  daughter  of  the  ever-roaring, 
soul-attuning  waters  !  Nor  let  thy  firm  heart  fail  thee  un- 
der the  trying  fortunes  that  have  been  thy  lot !  How  often 
does  time  justify  bright  dreams  whose  fulfillment  has  been 
long  deterred!  And  may  it  not  be  in  coming  years 
when  haply  redundant  capital  flowing  thither  from 
afar  shall  become  wedded  by  ties  tight  and  strong  to 
hungry  labor  in  our  new-ordered  South  as  already  in  other 
lands,  that  those  who  shall  then  roam  the  green  earth 
shall  see  thy  long  river  staircase,  from  Columbus  to 
West  Point,  one  climbing  street  of  pallatian  mills,  from 
whose  lofty  windows  toward  that  street's  upper  end,  the 
caged  operatives  will  often  look  out  and  regale  their  eyes 
and  hearts  with  the  ever  fresh  aerial  beauty  of  the  Pine 
Mountain.  Most  probably,  however,  ere  that  great  specta- 
cle shall  present  itself,  it  will  have  for  its  forerunner, 
another  hardly  less  inspiring,  though  of  a  very  different 
sort.  Around  that  mountain  with  its  naturally  fine  circum- 
jacent lands,  its  gushing  wealth  of  pure  healthful  waters, 
and  its  delicious,  salubrious  climate,  it  has  occurred  to  me 
that  earlier  perhaps  than  any  where  else  in  the  old  cotton 
belt  proper  of  the  State,  there  will  be  more  and  more  seen  a 
white  population  in  full,  manly,  working  harmony  with  the 
new  condition  of  things  with  which  the  Southern  people 
have  to  grapple;  a  white  population  that  will  know  no 


*  Indian  name  of  the  site  of  Columbus  and  the  Falls  of  the  Chattahoochee. 


THE   PINE   MOUNTAIN.  29 

shrinking  from  rough,  hard,  rural  toil,  from  daily  labor  in 
the  field  throughout  the  day,  throughout  the  year,  under 
summer  and  autumnal,  as  well  as  under  wintry  and  vernal 
suns;  a  population,  consequently,  which  will  be  freed  from 
dependence  on  the  negro;  and  under  whose  superior  indus- 
try and  management,  that  lair  region  will  be  made  to  re- 
spond fully  to  its  great  natural  advantages  and  to  become  a 
fit  ornate  setting  to  the  central  mountain  gem  which  it  en- 
circles. 

Of  the  various  routes,  two  on  the  Eastern  side  of  Flint 
river  and  five  between  the  Flint  and  Chattahoochee,  by 
which  I  had  occasion  to  cross  the  Pine  Mountain  in  old 
times  when  it  was  yet  an  interesting  novelty,  most  of 
them  being  at  points  of  great  depression,  such  as  the  roads 
usually  seek,  presented  no  very  striking  views  or  other  in- 
teresting features  of  scenery  ;  and  indeed  the  very  sight  of 
the  mountain  itself  was  hidden  from  the  approaching 
traveler  in  those  days,  by  the  thick  tall  forests  which  every- 
where environed  it,  so  that  the  first  notice  of  being  near  it 
was  the  actual  climbing  of  its  sides.  I  must,  however,  make 
an  exception,  here,  of  the  direct  route  between  Hamilton 
and  LaGrange,  which  was  first  opened  some  forty-five  or  six 
years  ago,  to  supersede  the  old  roundabout  way  by  King's 
Gap.  This  new  road  struck  the  mountain  some  few  miles 
north-west  from  Hamilton,  and  by  a  gentle  sidling  ascent, 
rose  gradually,  above  the  continually  expanding  campaign 
below,  of  which  the  rider  on  horseback  caught  glimpses 
larger  and  larger  through  the  surrounding  trees,  which 
grew  thinner  and  freer  irom  undergrowth  as  he  "ascended. 
Thus  he  was  well  prepared,  by  the  time  he  reached  the 
crest  of  the  mountain,  to  turn  his  horse's  head  to  the  South 
and  stand  at  gaze.  It  was  but  for  a  few  moments,  however, 
that  he  would  thus  stand,  for  quickly  he  saw  that  he  was  at 
the  most  depressed  point  of  that  narrow  crest  and  that  it 
stretched  away  westwardly  by  a  rapid,  smooth  ascent  over 
a  bare,  gravelly  surface,  with  a  thin  growth  of  mountain 
oaks  inviting  the  horseman  by  its  openness.  After  follow- 


30  THE    PIXE    MOUNTAIN. 

ing  this  ascent  for  a  few  hundred  yards,  again  he  stood  at 
gaze,  and  was  satisfied  not  to  stir  another  step.  A  fair, 
vast,  uniform  scene,  which  the  axe  had  not  yet  perceptibly 
marred,  was  embraced  at  once  by  the  eye,  above  all  blue, 
below  all  green,  the  intermediate  ether  filled  from  Heaven 
to  Earth  with  a  profusion  of  intense  summer  sunlight,  one 
single  ray  of  which  would  suffice  to  illuminate  the  World.* 
Away  beyond  Flint  river  on  the  East  and  beyond  the  Chat- 
tahoochee  on  the  West,  the  hills  rose  to  meet  the  kiss  of  the 
bending  skies.  Not  so  toward  the  South,  not  so  towards 
the  fierce  clime  beneath  which  the  great  American  Mediter- 
ranean rolls.  There  the  green  earth  declined  lower  and 
lower  in  the  distance  and  sank  away  more  and  more  in  love- 
ly maiden  withdrawal  from  the  stooping  Heavens,  which  at 
length  when  the  strained  eye  could  reach  no  further,  de- 
scended curtain-like  to  the  low-lying  emerald  expanse,  shut- 
ting out  from  view  all  beyond. 

On  turning  to  the  North,  the  contrast  was  very  striking. 
Whereas  to  the  South  the  country  sloped  away  in  a  long, 
interminable,  inclined  plain  till  it  reached  the  sea,  on  the 
Northern  side  it  rose  rapidly  as  it  receded,  the  rivers  and  all 
their  tributary  streams  running  downward  toward  the 
mountain.  Hence  the  prospect  in  that  direction  was  soon 
shut  in  and  bore  no  comparison  with  the  view  on  the  South- 
ern side. 

*  I  should  not  have  thought  of  using  this  very  strong  expression,  but  for  my 
vivid  recollection  of  the  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  November,  1834.  I  stood 
watchingforthe  instant  of  entire  obscuration.  It  lasted  but  for  a  moment. 
The  very  next  moment  a  single  ray  shot  from  the  sun  to  the  earth  through 
the  darkness,  fine  as  the  finest  thread,  intensely  luminous  and  visible  throughout 
the  whole  ninety-five  millions  of  miles  of  length.  It  literally  illuminated  the 
world,  for  it  fell  on  every  eye  and  alighted  on  every  object.  The  next  instant 
a  pencil  of  rays  shot  out,  but  it  only  created  a  greater  not  a  more  positive  or 
striking  illumination.  To  not  more  than  one  in  many  millions  of  men,  is  it 
given  ever  to  see  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  ;  partly  because  it  is  a  thing  that  so 
rarely  occurs,  partly  because  when  it  does  occur,  it  is  visible  on  so  small  a  por- 
tion of  the  earth's  surface.  Well  is  the  Astronomical  Author  of  the  American 
Almanac  for  the  year  1834,  justified  in  pronouncing  it  "the  most  magnificent 
and  sublime  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  compared  with  which  Niagara  sinks 
into  mediocrity." 


THE  PINE   MOUNTAIN.  31 

But  what  was  done  by  nature  for  the  Pine  Mountain  was 
not  all  external.      Deep  within   its  howels   she  is  and  ever 
has    been    busy    in    mysterious    workings.     There   she    lias 
established  her  wonderful  hidden  laboratories:     At  the  chief- 
est  of  which  no  chymic  hand  save  her  own  mixes  and  medi- 
cates the  inimitable  waters  of  the  Meriwether  Warm  Springs, 
bursting  in  a  lavish,  chrystal   sluice  from  the  Mountain's 
Northern  side.     No  fires  but  of  her  kindling  have  kept  them 
through  ages  at  the  same  exact  happy  temperature,  delicious 
and  healthful  for  bathing,  and  it  is  said,  too,  medicinal  for 
drinking.     Had  such  waters  been  found  in  any  of  the  moun- 
tains around  ancient  Rome,  marble  acqueducts  would  have 
conveyed  them  to  imperial  palaces,  marble  bathing  apart- 
ments would  have  welcomed  them  as  they  came  gushing. 
There  is  nothing  elsewhere,  I  have  often  heard  it  said,  com- 
parable to  the  delicate,  exquisite  luxury  they  afford.     Cer- 
tainly my  own  experience  tallies  with  this  belief,  nor  can  I 
conceive  of  anything  superior.     But  then  they  are  the  only 
Warm    Springs  that  I   Lave  ever  visited.     The  climate  is 
worthy  of  the  waters  and  the  site  and  scenery  worthy  of 
both.     In  Ante  Bellum  times  it  was  a  place  of  great  resort, 
thronged  by  the  best  company,  and  so  it  will  be  again  if  ever 
there  shall   be   again   money   and  means  at  the  South  for 
pleasuring,  and  if  our  people  shall  be  wise  and  Southern 
enough  to  spend  their  means  within  their  own  borders,  and 
thus  help  towards  adding  the  adornments  and  attractions  of 
art  to  the  beauties  and  blessings  by  which  nature  appeals  to 
us  to  stay  at  home  and  cherish  our  own  household  gods. 
How  much  better  would  this  be  on  the  part  of  the  fortunate, 
prosperous   few  among  us  than  gadding  abroad  to  empty 
their  pockets  and  air  themselves,  their  silks  and  felts  at  the 
North  to  the  annual  contemptious  admiration   of  our  con- 
querors, robbers,  oppressors  there  "that  some  of  the  rebels 
should  have  some  money  left  yet  for  summer  flaunting  and  slwio 
after  all."     To  your  tents,  oh !  Israel!     To  your  own  sum- 
mer resorts  if  a  summering  you  go,  even  though  you  should 
have  nothing  there  better  than  tents  or  log  cabins  to  shelter 


32  THE   PINE    MOUNTAIN. 

you  !  The  matrons  and  maidens  of  the  South  whom  the 
war  left  poor  but  heroines  and  patriots  forever,  stand  ready 
to  settle  this  point  aright  for  you.  To  their  husbands, 
fathers,  brothers  they  exclaim,  if  we  have  money  to  spend, 
let  it  be  spent  here  at  home  where  it  will  help  to  sustain  and 
cheer  our  own  stricken  Southern  land. 

But  hereabouts  and  not  far  off  are  to  be  seen  other  kindred 
displays  of  nature's  liberality  to  the  Pine  Mountain.  Mind- 
ful of  the  Southern  liver,  often  a  prey  to  malaria,  she  has 
considerately  imbedded  some  where  in  the  mountain  some- 
what or  much  what  of  brimstone  and  taught  her  purest  wa- 
ters to  percolate  there  and  to  tarry  long  enough  to  become 
impregned  with  its  virtues  and  .then  a  little  way  off  to  the 
North  to  bubble  up  in  the  White  Sulphur  Spring — a  resort 
dear  in  former  times  to  the  hepatic  and  to  staid,  quiet  people. 

Nor  was  she  unthoughtful  of  those  who,  victims  of  no 
malady,  might  merely  wish  to  spend  a  summer  vacation  in 
relaxation  and  gaiety,  and  laying  up  a  stock  of  fine  health 
for  the  future.  Behold  for  these,  in  a  sweet  valley  to  the 
South,  the  famed  Chalybeate  Spring  renowned  for  its  tonic 
properties.  Where  lie  the  great  subterranean  iron  ore  beds 
from  which  the  generous  fountain  distills  and  draws  its 
strength,  none  can  tell,  save  that  they  are  deep  hidden  in 
the  mountain's  hard  bosom,  safe  there  from  the  miner's  pick 
and  the  vagrant  enterprise  of  searchers  after  "Mineral  Rich- 
es." And  none  need  fear  as  long  as  that  mountain  shall 
stand,  that  these  its  happily  ferruginated  waters  will  ever 
fail,  or  lose  aught  of  their  health  giving  efficacy. 

Nature's  rich  dowry  to  the  Pine  Mountain  is  yet  further 
augmented  by  another  mineral  spring  which  it  has  never 
been  my  fortune  to  visit,  but  which  from  all  I  have  ever 
heard,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  in  an  inventory  of  its 
wealth.  'It  is  the  Oak  Mountain  Spring,  so  called  from  a« 
neighboring  spur  or  projection  of  that  name  from  the  main 
mountain  range.  Owing,  it  is  said,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
owner  of  the  land  to  make  or  promote  the  making  of  provis- 
ion for  the  entertainment  and  accomodation  of  visitors,  this 


THE    PINE    MOUNTAIN.  33 

spring  has  hitherto  been  little  known,  being  frequented  only 
by  those  who  are  willing  and  able  to  erect  accommodations 
arid  provide  in  all  respects  ibr  themselves.  And  yet  in  spite 
of  this  drawback,  its  waters  have  acquired  a  high  reputation 
with  the  few  that  know  them,  foreshadowing  a  wide  celeb- 
rity and  a  thronged  patronage  whenever  they  shall  fall 
under  a  propitious  management.  They  have  never  been  an- 
alyzed, and  consequently  their  qualities  are  vouched  for  by 
no  chemical  tests,  and  the  warm  praises  and  satisfactory  ex- 
perience of  all  who  have  ever  given  them  a  trial  must  be 
accepted  for  the  presentas  the  only  certificates  of  their  merit. 
Cross  we  now  Flint  river  from  the  West,  and  two  or 
three  miles  from  its  Eastern  bank,  in  what  was  forty  years 
ago  a  wild  sequestered  glen  of  the  mountain,  close  by  the 
side  of  a  little  rivulet,  we  encounter  the  greatest  natural  cu- 
riosity of  all,  the  greatest  not  only  in  this  region,  but  the 
greatest  and  most  interesting  it  has  ever  happened  to  me  to 
see  in  Georgia  or  anywhere  else.  It  is  the  Thundering 
Spring,  a  boiling,  uprushing  column,  six  feet  in  diameter, 
of  purest  water  and  finest  sand  intermixed.  The  column  on 
reaching  the  top  of  its  deep  cylindrical  well  overflows  in  a 
ceaseless  flood  on  the  side  next  to  the  rivulet  and  runs  into 
it.  So  forceful  is  its  upward  rush  that  no  dead  or  living 
thing,  animal  or  vegetable,  nothing  lighter  than  stone  or 
metal,  can  conquer  it  and  go  down.  It  is  a  wondrous  Na- 
ture's bath,  the  bather  being  doubly  laved,  water- washed 
and  sand-washed  at  the  same  time,  treated  over  his  whole 
body  to  an  exquisite,  healthful  cutaneous  friction  far  sur- 
passing all  the  appliances  of  hygene  or  "adulteries  of  art;" 
— bobbing  perpendicularly  up  and  down  in  the  water  mean- 
while, incapable  and  fearless  of  sinking.  Upon  first  leap- 
ing into  it,  a  man  goes  straight  down  under  the  water  for 
an  instant,  and  then  pops  straight  back  up  to  the  surface 
again,  like  a  submerged  cork,  and  there  floats  at  ease  breast 
high  out  of  the  water,  gamboling  mermaid-like  as  long 
as  he  pleases.  No  bottom  up  to  the  time  of  my  visit  had 
ever  been  found  to  this  unparagoncd  well,  nor  had  it  ever 


34  THE   PINE    MOUNTAIN. 

been  at  all  ascertained  that  it  had  any  other  or  more  solid 
bottom  than  the  seemingly  inexhaustible  and  consequently 
interminably  deep,  loose,  quicksands  which  it  was  forever 
bringing  to  the  top  and  discharging  along  with  its  waters 
into  the  adjoining  rivulet. 

Of  course,  the  hydrostatic  principle  which  caused  and 
perpetuates  this  spring  in  all  its  up-shooting  vehemence  is 
simple  and  obvious.  But  where  shall  we  look  for  such  an- 
other exemplification  of  that  principle  ?  Not  certainly 
on  the  Atlantic  side  of  North  America.  Nor  have  I  ever 
heard  of  its  match  anywhere  in  the  great  trans-montane 
"unknown"  of  the  Pacific  slope.  I  can  recall  nothing  of 
which  I  ever  heard  or  read  that  is  a  match  for  it  except  the 
Geysers  of  Iceland,  and  they  are  beyond  doubt  an  over 
match . 

It  is  a  thing  that  strikes  the  contemplative  mind  at  once 
curiously  and  pleasantly  that  Nature  should  have  passed  by 
all  the  greater  mountains  and  reserved  this  wonder  of  hers 
for  one  so  petty  and  unimportant  in  comparison  as  the  Pinu 
Mountain.  Some  where  in  its  upper  strata  she  saw  fit  to 
construct  in  preference  to  all  other  places,  her  mighty  reser- 
voirs and  to  keep  them  perpetually  filled  with  that  ponder- 
ous mass  of  waters  whose  downward  pressure  forcing  them 
along  through  some  narrow,  strong-walled  subterranean 
passage,  they  came  at  last  against  the  quicksands  of  this 
spot,  where  their  further  underground  course  being  arrested 
by  unknown  obstacles,  they  burst  their  way  suddenly  and 
violently  through  the  loose,  overlying  sands  up  to  the 
Earth's  surface  and  to  the  light  of  the  sun  and  the  wonder- 
ing eyes  of  men. 

The  name  of  Thundering  Spring  is  supposed  to  have  been 
bestowed  by  the  Indians  whose  exquisite  sense  of  hearing 
doubtless  caught  sometimes  the  sound  of  the  surging  wa- 
ters as  they  raved  and  boiled  in  their  sandy  depths.  But 
its  thunders  have  now  long  been  silent  or  at  least  unheard, 
unable  to  penetrate  arid  awaken  the  dull  ear  of  Civilization. 


KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS.  35 


CHAPTER    V. 


KING'S  GAP— KING'S  TRAILS. 

King's  Gap  in  the  Pine  Mountain,  a  few  miles  above 
Hamilton  in  Harris  county,  on  the  road  to  Greenville,  is  the 
last  memento  now  remaining  of  a  set  of  Indian  Trails  of  that 
name  that  in  Indian  times  perforated  in  various  directions 
the  upper  part  of  the  region  between  the  Flint  and  Chatta- 
hoochee  and,  I  feel  certain,  also  of  a  much  larger  scope  of 
the  Creek  Territory  to  the  East,  South  and  West.  I  first 
visited  the  country  North  of  the  Pine  Mountain,  in  the 
Spring  of  1827,  when  the  Indians  had  just  left  and  civilized 
settlement  was  just  beginning.  Carried  by  business,  I  cross- 
ed Flint  river  at  Gray's  ferry  not  much  above  the  Mountain 
and  took  what  had  been  King's  Trail,  but  which  by  that 
time  had  been  widened  into  a  rude  wagon  road  by  the  new 
settlers  having  chopped  away  a  few  bushes  along  its  sides. 
It  conducted  me  to  a  place  called  Weavers,  the  temporary 
seat  of  Justice  for  Troup  county,  which  originally  extended 
from  river  to  river.  Having  delivered  to  the  newly  elected 
but  yet  uncommissioned  Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court,  my 
client's  Informations  against  sundry  lots  of  land  charged  to 
have  been  fraudulently  drawn  in  the  then  recent  Land  Lot- 
tery, I  enquired  how  I  could  get  to  Bullsboro,  the  just 
chosen  judicial  site  of  Coweta  county,  where  I  had  similar 
business.  Nobody  could  tell.  Luckily  the  newly  elected 
sheriff  arrived  at  this  juncture  to  lea,rn  whether  his  commis- 
sion had  yet  come  from  Milledgeville.  He  told  me  there 


36  KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS. 

was  no  road  to  Bullsboro  and  that  my  best  way  would  be  to 
go  home  with  him,  on  the  Western  side  of  the  county,  and  to 
take  a  trail  the  next  morning  that  ran  up  the  Chattahoochee. 
I  thanked  him  and  went  with  him,  resuming  the  same  King's 
Trail  l>y  which  I  had  come  from  Flint  river  and  which  struck 
the  Chattahoochee  at  what  is  now  West  Point.  Nor  did  it  stop 
there,  for  seven  years  afterwards,  in  1834,  when  the  Indians 
were  yet  in  the  Alabama  part  of  their  country,  I  traveled 
along  the  continuation  of  this  same  trail,  a  lone  horseman, 
from  West  Point  to  Tallasee  at  the  foot  of  the  first  falls  of 
the  Tallapossa  river,  from  whence  the  trail  still  continued, 
passing  through  Tuckabatchee,  the  Creek  Capital  and  famed 
seat  of  the  Big  Warrior,  and  extending  from  thence  to  the 
old  French  Fort  Toulouse,  afterwards  Fort  Jackson,  and  also 
to  Little  Talasee,  the  still  more  famous  seat  of  the  renowned 
McGillivray. 

The  next  morning  my  Sheriff-Host  refusing  everything  but 
my  thanks  for  his  hospitality,  told  me  I  had  nothing  to  do 
but  to  take  another  King's  trail  which  he  directed  me  how 
to  find  at  no  great  distance  from  his  house,  and  to  follow  it 
up  the  river  some  twenty  or  twenty-five  miles,  whea  I  must 
begin  to  look  out  for  some  route  striking  into  the  interior  of 
the  county  of  Coweta.  He  knew  there  was  such  a  route,  but 
not  how  far  off  it  was.  I  soon  found  myself  in  this  second 
King's  Trail  ascending  the  country,  and  as  I  jogged  along  in 
the  little,  narrow,  well  defined  path,  ji*t'  wide  enough  for  a 
single  footman  or  horseman,  and  aldng  which  no  bush  had 
ever  been  cut  away,  no  wheel  had  ever  rolled,  King's  Trail 
began  to  be  a  study  to  me,  and  I  began  to  wonder  what 
great  Indian  trader,  of  whom  I  had  never  heard,  was  great 
enough  to  have  given  his  name  not  to  one  Indian  trail  only, 
but  to  two. 

At  first  I  could  not  help  feeling  some  misgiving  as  to  the 
persistent  continuity  of  my  little  path,  and  dreaded  lest  it 
might  give  out  or  in  the  phrase  of  the  new  settlers  "take  a 
sapling"  and  leave  me  alone  in  the  trackless  woods  ;  and 
once  indeed,  when  the  day  was  pretty  far  advanced,  it  seemed 


KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS.  37 

to  divide,  and  both  tracks  were  so  dim  that  I  was  in 
doubt,  which  to  take.  But  clinging  almost  instinctively  to 
the  Western  or  river  side.  I  soon  found  myself  riding  along 
the  bank  of  a  considerable  water  course  which  I  felt  no 
pleasure  at  the  prospect  of  having  to  ford.  While  this  anx- 
iety was  yet  strong  upon  me,  suddenly  the  trail  plunged 
into  a  piece  of  rich  bottom  land,  evidently  an  old  Indian 
clearing,  now,  however,  grown  up  into  a  very  dense  thicket 
of  young  trees  and  clustering  vines  which  overarched  and 
darkened  the  narrow  way.  But  still  the  little  path  contin- 
ued distinct  and  unobstructed,  and  when  I  was  expecting 
every  moment  to  come  where  I  should  be  obliged  to  risk 
fording  the  stream,  behold  !  I  began  to  ascend  a  hill,  and 
it  grew  lighter  and  lighter  and  soon  I  was  on  a  clear  open 
hill-top  with  the  shining  waters  of  the  Chattahoochee,  flash- 
ing in  the  sunlight  before  me  and  a  plain  open  road  invit- 
ing me,  leading  eastwardly  from  the  river.  Few  contrasts 
have  I  ever  encountered  in  my  life  more  thrilling  and  joyous 
than  the  almost  instantaneous  transition  from  that  dark 
thicket  to  this  bright  scene.  It  was  Gray  son's  Landing,  on 
which  I  stood,  as  I  not  long  afterwards  learned — a  place 
much  noted  in  old  times  as  a  crossing  in  the  Indian  trade.* 
It  took  its  name  from  Grayson,  a  Scotchman,  who  was  a 
great  Indian  trader  eighty  or  ninety  years  ago,  and  whose 
name  sometimes  occurs  in  the  American  State  papers  on  In- 
dian Affairs.  He  tracked  and  traveled  and  livedamong  the 
Indians  until  becoming  rich  and  attached  to  them,  he  ended 
by  taking  an  Indian  wife  and  settling  down  permanently  in 
the  Indian  country  at  the  Hillabee  towns,  some  distance  to 
the  West  or  South-west  from  this  point  on  the  Chattahoo- 
chee. At  these  towns  it  was,  if  I  remember  aright,  that 
Col.  Willet  unexpectedly  first  met  McGillivray  in  his  great 
Mission  as  Washington's  confidential  agent  in  1790.  It 

•Grayson's  Landing  is  now,  I  have  heard,  not  quite  so  noted  a  crossing  as  in 
old  Indian  times,  though  it  is  still  a  crossing,  under  the  name  of  Philpot's 
Ferry,  in  Heard  County,  just  below  the  mouth  of  New  River,  which  is  the 
identical  river,  then  certainly  entirely  new  to  me,  that  1  so  much  Ireaded  to 
ford  in  the  spring  of  1S27, 


38  KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS. 

was  also  through  these  same  towns  and  along  the  trading 
route  that  led  from  them  to  the  river  at  Grayson's  Landing, 
and  from  thence  onward  hy  the  way  of  the  Stone  Mountain 
to  the  Savannah  river,  keeping  all  the  while  within  the  In- 
dian Territory,  (for  Georgia  and  the  Creeks  were  then  at 
war)  that  Col.  Willet  soon  after  escorted  the  great  ambassa- 
dorial cavalcade  of  Creek  Chiefs  to  New  York,  headed  by 
McGillivray  himself,  the  Sovereign  Chief. 

As  I  paused  for  a  while  on  the  beautiful  overlooking  hill 
that  sloped  down  to  the  river  bank,  gazing  around  and 
breathing  freer,  I  little  thought  on  what  historic  ground  I  was 
standing,  or  that  the  Eastwardly  road,  the  sight  of  which 
WHS  still  making  my  heart  leap,  was  only  a  very  modern 
widening  of  still  another  King's  Trail — a  fact  I  learned  sub- 
sequently. It  had  been  wrought  into  a  wagon  road  during 
the  previous  winter  by  the  hauling  of  corn  and  piovisions 
from  the  not  very  remote  old  settlements  to  be  floated  down 
the  Chattahoochee  from  this  point  for  the  supply  of  the  new 
settlers  on  both  sides  of  the  river. 

My  faithful  steed  felt  not  less  than  myself  the  inspiring 
change  from  the  petty  trail  he  had  been  threading  all  the 
day  through  the  woods  to  the  bright  open  track  that  now 
solicited  him,  and  he  sprang  forward  with  rapid,  elastic 
steps  that  brought  me  a  little  after  nightfall  to  my  destina- 
tion, rude  but  hospitable  Bullboro,  some  two  or  three  miles 
North  of  the  beaten  road  along  which  I  had  been  pushing 
hard  during  the  afternoon.  My  business  was  quickly  des- 
patched the  next  morning,  and  again  in  the  saddle,  two  more 
days  of  lonely,  meditative  travel  found  me  at  my  new  home 
at  Forsyth  and  at  the  end  of  my  tour,  but  not  at  the  end  of 
its  fascinating  effect.  My  mind  still  remained  under  a 
charm,  as  it  were,  and  most  especially  did  that  ubiquitous 
King's  Trail  pursue  and  haunt  me,  demanding  solution  of 
the  name  it  bore,  demanding  to  whom,  great  among  the 
Indians  in  trade  or  in  any  other  way,  that  name  had  ever 
belonged  that  it  should  have  become  the  favorite  designation 
of  so  many  of  their  important  trails.  But  nobody  did  I  ever 


KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAII^.  39 

encounter  who  was  able  to  enlighten  my  ignorance  or  aid 
my  enquiries  or  in  the  slightest  degree  appease  my  curiosity. 
To  all  which  add,  that  soon  afterwards  I  had  occasion  to 
make  another  trip  to  the  new  country,  which  revealed  to  me 
still  another,-  a  fourth  King's  Trail,  the  one  deflecting  from 
the  Gray's  ferry  route,  through  the  Pine  Mountain  at  King's 
Gap,  and  passing  from  thence  down  to  where  Columbus  now 
stands.  And  thus  the  interest  of  the  curious  question 
which  had  beset  me  was  intensated  and  increased.  It  per- 
sued  me  more  and  more  and  wrought  itself  finally  into  my 
sleeping  as  well  as  rny  waking  hours. 

I  dreamed  that  I  was  in  the  saddle  again,  and  that  I  had 
already  been  there  a  long  time,  wending  along  yet  another 
King's  Trail,  one  tending  downward  in  its  course  towards 
the  Atlantic  wave  and  Orient  Sun.  Already  I  was  far  gone 
on  my  journey,  far  down  on  the  ridge  which  divides  the 
waters  which  prefer  the  Gulf  from  those  which  go  into  the 
Ocean.  The  pine  forests  were  already  thickening  with  their 
gloom  the  dim  dubious  twilight  that  enveloped  me,  sacred 
ever  to  dreams.  Methought  I  was  drawing  near  the  land  of 
Tallassee  so  dear  of  old  to  the  Indian  heart,  and  remember 
ed  not  that  neither  there,  nor  where  I  actually  was,  nor 
along  the  Atlantic  Coast  nor  in  the  high  uplands  through 
which  my  long  darksome  ride  had  stretched,  were  the  In- 
dians any  longer  to  be  found.  It  was  not  night,  it  was  not 
day.  No  stars  were  out,  there  was  no  sun,  no  moon,  and 
yet  the  sky  looked  blue  through  the  sombre  air.  The  great- 
er beasts  were  all  in  their  lairs  and  no  large  living  thing 
was  astir  save  me  and  my  horse.  But  the  owl's  hootings 
and  the  whippoorwill's  night-long,  monotonous  lament  sere- 
naded me  on  my  way,  and  ever  ami  anon  the  leather-winged 
bat  flitted  before  me,  saluting,  whilst  the  tall,  heavy  topt 
trees  glowred  solemnly  over  the  sleeping,  semi-nocturnal 
scene.  The  further  I  went  the  more  I  fell  in  love  with  my 
dear,  unfailing  little  path,  it  was  so  single,  so  unerringly 
true  and  right  and  safe.  Calm  was  my  faith  that  it  would 
not  desert  me  nor  lead  me  into  evil  or  peril,  though  I  was 


40  KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS. 

without  any  distinct  thought  whither  it  was  carrying  me 
save  only  that  it  was  tending  seaward.  And  to  the  sea  at 
length  it  came,  and  with  lovely,  modest  assuredness  and  di- 
rectness, crossed  the  shelving,  sandy  beach  and  kissed  the 
vast  Ocean's  briny  lip.  My  horse  planted  his  fore-feet  fet- 
lock deep  in  the  edge  of  the  sea  in  sign  of  ready  obedience 
and  stood  awaiting  my  intimations.  He  gazed  with  me  on 
that  great  convex  liquid  world,  and  with  me  vainly  strained 
his  vision  to  dcsory  its  invisible  bounds.  But  this  unavailing 
strain  of  the  eye  continued  not  long.  Old  Neptune,  proud 
of  his  Trident  and  wantoning  in  his  sea-controlling  power, 
kind  also  to  the  uneasy,  perplexed  surveyor  of'  his  tossing 
domain,  struck  a  divine  blow  on  the  topmost  billow  of  the 
remote  outline,  and  quickly  the  ever-bending,  never-ending 
convexity  of  the  dread  waste  of  waters  subsided  and  became 
a  vast,  level,  aqueous  plain,  on  which  a  slight  mist  rested 
low,  and  I  beheld  the  Halcyon  brooding  and  hatching  her 
young  on  the  still  wave.  No  upswelling  watry  sphere  inter- 
cepted now  my  vision  which  lengthened  immeasurably,  ade- 
quate to  the  broad,  flat,  ocean  floor  that  spread  out  before 
me,  beyond  which  I  caught  a  view  of  the  old  World  and  of 
Georgia's  parent  land,  and  saw,  too,  wonderful  to  tell,  rny 
tiny  little  King's  Trail  recommencing  plain  on  the  British 
shore  at  the  very  water's  edge  and  inviting  me  over.  The 
dim  trans-Atlantic  East  was  beginning  by  this  time,  how- 
ever, to  redden  under  the  rays  of  the  yet  unseen  !Sun, 
when  Lo  !  on  a  sudden,  all  my  dream  vanished,  for  dreams 
cannot  stand  the  sun,  and  left  me  and  my  true  steed  stand- 
ing where  we  were  statue-like  and  aghast  forever. 

And  now  for  days  and  weeks  this  dream  haunted  and  har- 
rassed  me  more  than  King's  Trails  had  ever  done — so  im- 
portunate was  it  to  be  interpreted.  How  stolid  I  was  !  How 
slowly  penetrable  my  mind  to  the  light !  But  the  dream 
pursued  me  none  the  less  for  my  dullness,  and  I  had  no  op- 
tion but  to  work  and  worry,  as  best  I  could,  at  its  solution. 
At  last  in  a  happy  moment,  light  began  to  break  in  by  piece- 
meal upon  me;  and  first,  it  occured  to  me  how  devotedly 


KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS.  41 

loyal  to  the  British  Crown,  all  the  Indian  Traders,  great  and 
small,  of  the  Colonial  Era  were — the  MeGillivrays,  the  Mc- 
1 1> toshes,  the  McQueens,  the  Barnards,  the  Galphins,  the 
(iravMHis,  the  Tautens  and  others.  Then  it  slowly  came  up 
to  my  mind  what  mighty  influence  these  shrewd,  enterpris- 
ing traders  acquired  among  the  simple  savages,  and  how 
they  employed  that  influence  and  their  utmost  art  besides  in 
making  them,  too,  loyal  and  devoted  to  the  mighty  Traus- 
Atlautic  King,  whom  they  were  taught  riot  only  to  rever- 
fiiiv  as  their  Great  Father,  but  almost  to  worship  as  their 
more  than  human  Earthly  Sovereign.  And  then  next,  who 
does  not  know  that  all  over  Great  Britain,  the  Public 
Roads  are  and  ever  have  been  called  the  King's  Highways 
as  well  in  common  as  in  legal  parlance?  And  now  putting 
all  these  things  together,  I  knew  (for  indeed  it  was  very 
plain)  whence  King's  Trails  came  and  how  they  got  their 
name  ;  for  that  the  Indian  traders  who  had  been  accustomed 
across  the  ocean  in  their  old  country  to  hear  the  broad  pub- 
lic roads  there  called  by  the  King's  Title,  had  naturally  as 
well  as  interestedly  bestowed  the  same  title  on  the  narrower 
trading  and  traveling  routes  through  the  Indian  country 
here,  practicable  only  for  pedestrians  and  ponies  and  pack- 
horses.  The  Indians  themselves  easily  accepted  the  desig- 
nation, partly  through  mere  indifference,  partly  from  real 
homage  for  the  great  King  and  their  estimation  of  his  trad- 
ing and  official  subjects  who  came  among  them,  as  they  were 
taught  to  believe,  not  to  make  war  upon  them,  or  to  wrong 
them  out  of  their  lands,  but  for  better  and  more  agreeable 
objects.  Thus  King's  Trails  in  Georgia  were  legitimately 
descended  and  named  from  the  King's  highways  in  Great 
Britain.  Behold  !  then  here,  how  clear  the  evidence  and 
argument  (though  suggested  by  a  dream)  that  these  King's 
Trails  not  only  had  their  derivation  from  England,  but  were 
of  no  mean  lineage  there,  but  of  undoubted  right  royal  gen- 
ealogy. 

Nor    is    this  although  a  curious,  by  any  means  a  sing- 
ular case   of  high    loyalty  in    colonial  times    delighting  to 


42  KING'S  GAP.     KING'S  TRAILS. 

express  itself  by  the  bestowment  of  the  regal  name.  The 
State  of  New  York  has  to  this  clay,  a  King's  county  and  a 
Queen's.  Others  of  the  Old  Thirteen  the  same  or  similar. 
Maryland,  for  instance,  has  her  Queen  Ann  and  Prince 
George,  Virginia  her  King  and  Queen,  a  King  William,  a 
King  George,  to  say  nothing  of  her  Princes  and  Princesses 
of  counties.  South  Carolina  cherishes  her  King's  Mountain, 
glorious  by  Eevolutionary  battle  and  blood  and  victory. 
And  her  Charleston,  Queen  City  once,  sitting  lowly  and 
beautiful,  Venice-like,  in  the  lap  of  the  sea,  radiant  with 
pearls,  yet  richer  far  in  wealth  of  the  soul  than  of  the  mines  ! 
She,  although  stricken  and  in  sackcloth  now,  cannot  but  take 
pride  still  in  that  King  Street  of  hers,  Royalty's  namesake  and 
.  remembrancer,  felicitous  beyond  compare  in  its  superb  sweep 
of  slowbending,  graceful  curvature  and  in  the  stirring  scene 
of  cultured  life  and  animated  traffic  that  used  to  pervade 
its  farstretching,  crescent-like  length  ;  narrow,  but  the  more 
beautiful  because  narrow,  darkened  and  adorned  at  once  by 
its  tall  rows  of  imposing  houses  on  either  side,  softly  illum- 
ed at  the  same  time  by  Heaven's  overarching  azure  as  its 
mild-beaming,  eternal  sky-light.  In  like  manner,  as  long 
as  King's  Gap  shall  remain  or  as  the  tradition  of  King's 
Trails  shall  last,  Georgia  may  lay  a  true,  an  ancient,  and 
though  a  modest,  yet  not  an  unromatic  claim  to  somewhat  of 
her  own,  reminding  of  Kingly  State  and  times,  aod  of  the 
sceptered  hand  and  gemmed  brow  our  Ancestors  loved  and 
honored  once,  but  which,  in  their  greater  love  for  freedojn, 
they  hastened  to  renounce  and  abjure  for  a  Republic  under 
which  the  hapless  people  of  the  South  now  lie  prostrate, 
victims  of  a  system  of  mis-government,  oppression,  wrong 
and  corruption  hideous  to  contemplate,  diabolical  to  inflict, 
terrible  and  debasing  to  endure,  and  which  is  assuredly  des- 
tined in  its  miserable  effects,  to  be  not  much  worse  felt  in 
the  long  run  by  its  victims  than  by  its  perpetrators,  who  in 
their  insane,  vindictive  blundering  to  enslave  and  ruin  us, 
are  forging  chains  for  themselves  likewise,  and  are  even 
now  blindly  pulling  down  the  temple  of  American  liberty  in 
ruins  on  their  own  heads. 


THE    PINE   BARREN    SPECULATION.  43 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  PINE  BARREN  SPECULATION  OF  1T94-5. 

Having  been  led  in  speaking  of  the  causes  of  the  Land 
Lottery  System,  a  couple  of  chapters  back,  to  mention  the 
infamous  Pine  Barren  Speculation  of  now  some  eighty  years 
ago,  it  is  not  inopportune  to  pause  here  for  the  purpose  of 
branding  a  little  more  memorably  that  very  extraordinary 
and  nefarious  piece  of  money  seeking  greed  and  criminality. 
Indeed,  the  fact  that  its  revolting  effect  on  the  popular  mind, 
combined  with  the  still  greater  shock  of  the  Yazoo  Fraud, 
conduced  largely  to  the  subsequent  abandonment  by  the 
State  of  the  old  Head  Right  mode  of  disposing  of  the  pub- 
lic Territory  and  the  adoption  of  the  Land  Lottery  System 
in  its  stead,  imparts  to  it  no  small  historic  interest  and 
gives  it  a  valid  claim  to  be  noticed  and  rescued  from  oblivi- 
on. To  this  end  we  now  shift  the  scene,  and  quitting  the 
rich,  variagated,  oak  and  hickory  lands  of  the  Upcountry, 
changeful  with  the  seasons  from  grave  to  gay,  from  green 
to  sere,  content  ourselves  a  while  with  gazing  on  the  dreary 
platitude  and  unchangingness  of  regions  nearer  the  sea,  sad 
with  perpetual  verdure,  with  streaming,  ever-gray  long 
moss  and  the  aerial  moaning  of  the  lordly  pines  over  those 
vast  and  lonely  wilds.  Here  the  sandy  barrens  salute  us — 
the  land  of  the  gopher  and  salamander,  of  fish  and  game,  of 
wiregrass  and  wild  cattle  and  of  herdsmen  and  hunters 
almost  as  wild,  who  love  their  rough  lives  of  desultory  labor 
and  leisure,  never  fearful  of  want,  however  scanty  their 
store  in  hand,  for  the  woods  and  streams  hold  always  stores 
for  them,  which  their  pleasure  in  capturing  is  scarcely  less 
than  their  zest  in  enjoying.  How  beneficent  is  God  !  Who 
conciliates  to  the  denizens  of  every  land  the  homes  he  has 


44  THE    PINE   BARREN    SPEUCLATION. 

given  them,  and  has  rendered  even  these  uninviting  and 
never  to  be  cultivated  realms  of  nature  dear  to  the  hearts 
and  sufficient  for  the  wants  of  the  unsophisticated  dwellers 
there.  Nor  dear  to  their  hearts  only,  but  to  those  likewise 
of  all  the  truly  filial  children  of  Georgia  wherever  they  in- 
habit, from  the  mountains  to  the  sea.  To  all  these  her  broad 
maternal  bosom  has  everywhere  a  touching  fascination  and 
charm.  They  love  every  inch  of  her  soil,  broken  or  level, 
sterile  or  fertile,  all  her  upcountry  and  lowcountry,  her  oaky 
woods  and  piny  woods,  her  hills  and  dales,  her  mountains 
and  valleys,  her  forests  and  fields,  her  rivers  and  streams, 
her  towns,  her  cities  and  her  rural  scenes.  For  all,  all  is 
Georgia! 

Montgomery  county,  created  in  17':lo,  by  cutting  off  the 
lower  end  of  Washington,  originally  comprised  all  the  coun- 
try, now  embraced  in  several  counties,  beginning  from  the 
upper  line  of  Emannel  as  first  formed,  and  extending  from 
the  Ogechee  on  one  side  and  the  Oconee  and  Altamaha  on 
the  other  as  far  down  as  the  upper  edge  of  Liberty  county. 
The  whole  was  one  immense,  sterile  pine  forest,  the  same 
that  so  much  impressed  the  celebrated  English  traveler, 
Captain  Basil  Hall,  forty-six  years  ago,  whose  interesting 
and  graphic  account  of  it*  is  now  and  will  for  centuries  to 
come  still  be  as  true  and  applicable  as  it  was  when  written. 
Here  flow  the  Ohoopies  the  Canoochies,  the  Yam-Grandy 
and  other  streams  notorious  for  barren  lands,  the  haunt  of 
deer,  and  for  limped  waters  rich  with  fish.  Here  nature 
reigns  and  will  continue  to  reign  supreme  as  she  has  done 
for  ages  past,  secure  in  vast  barrens  not  less  mighty  than 
mountains  and  marshes  and  deadly  climes  under  equatorial 
suns,  in  giving  perpetuity  td  her  throne  against  man's  in- 
vasions. Here,  too,  as  in  other  similar  pine  regions  of  the 
South,  even  war  and  a  dire  peace  prolific  of  curses  every- 
where else,  have  alike  swept  over  innocuous,  inflicting  no 
change.  It  is  grateful  to  feel  that  there  are  some  things  of 
earth,  not  amenable  to  change  at  man's  hands  ;  some  things 

*See  his  Travels  in  North  America  in  1827-1  S'28.     Vol.  2.  Chapters  19-20. 


THE   PINE  BARREN   SPECULATION.  45 

sacred,  stable,  ineffaceable  in  this  fickle,  fleeting,  ever- 
perishing  world,  tbe  prey  of  crime,  revolution,  ruin  and  de- 
cay. Hinv  this  feeling  deepens  by  time  arid  thought  and 
renders  the  eternal  monuments  of  nature  of  whatever  sort 
dearer  and  dearer  to  the  soul  of  him  who  has  always  loved 
her  in  all  her  diversities  and  who  has  grown  old  and  sad, 
contemplating  the  frailty  of  men  and  the  vanity  and  tran- 
sientness  as  well  of  their  proudest  as  of  their  poorest  works. 
It  was  in  this  wide  extended,  sterile  solitude  that  the 
scene  of  the  Pine  Barren  Speculation  was  laid  by  its  authors 
and  projectors.  Here  they  found  fitting  soil  for  sowing  their 
crop  of  villainy,  fitting  ground  whereon  to  plant  the  lever 
of  their  scheme  of  fraud.  Here  they  beheld  outspread  and 
neglected  millions  of  barren  acres — so  barren  as  not  only  to 
have  attracted  no  immigration  but  no  attention.  No  settlers 
were  drawn  thither  even  by  the  gratuitous  terms  of  the 
Head  Right  system  of  that  period,  requiring  the  payment  of 
nothing  but  office  fees.  Whilst  the  counties  of  Green  and 
Hancock,  which  had  been  carved  out  of  the  upper  end  of 
Washington,  had  already  become  populous  and  flourishing 
communities,  the  huge  lower  section  now  converted  into 
Montgomery  county,  remained  a  desolate  waste.  But  these 
lands,  though  they  had  no  attractions  for  honest,  industri- 
ous settlers,  presented  a  temptation  at  once,  novel  and  pow- 
erful to  unprincipled  speculators,  who  did  not  suffer  them  to 
remain  long  unnoticed  after  they  were  set  off  into  a  separate 
county.  Lynx-eyed  fraud  quickly  saw  its  opportuni- 
ty in  the  very  neglect  to  which  they  were  abandoned,  and 
pounced  upon  them  for  its  own  vile  enrichment  soon  after 
the  new  county  was  formed.  It  conceived  the  bold,  cunning 
idea  of  coining  their  very  barrenness  into  an  infamous  value 
never  before  imagined,  and  to  thi«  end  it  devised  and  work- 
ed out  that  monstrous  scheme  of  villainy  which  was  still  the 
subject  of  loathing  reinemberauce  and  mention  in  my  early 
boyhood.  Its  originators  and  managers  had  made  up  their 
minds  from  the  outset  to  shrink  from  no  exorbitance  of  in- 
iquity that  might  be  deemed  conducive  to  their  ends  ;  and 


46  THE   PINE   BARREN    SPECULATION. 

they  played  accordingly  an  intrepid  and  magnificent  game 
of  i'elonious  knavery. — Fraud,  iorgery,  bribery,  perjury — 
such  were  the  crimes  that  stood  in  their  way,  but  at  which 
they  balked  not.  The  incorrupt  mind  recoils  from  the  hor- 
rid catalogue  and  would  fain  regard  the  story  of  so  much 
diabolism  as  a  distempered  fable.  But,  alas  !  the  daily  ex- 
perience which  surrounds  and  shocks  us,  or  rather  has 
ceased  to  shock  us  in  these  our  own  times,  forbids  such  a 
solace.  In  the  presence  of  the  stupendous  pecuniary  atroci- 
ties which  are  now  of  familiar  occurrence,  practiced  alike 
by  men  in  private  and  public  life,  the  grossest  villainies  of 
the  past  are  dwarfed  and  vindicate  themselves  as  at  once  en- 
titled to  a. stronger  belief  and  a  mitigated  infamy. 

The  plans  of  the  miscreants  were  well  laid  and  unflinch- 
ingly followed  out.  In  the  vast  uninhabited  woods  they 
planted  or  found  at  wide  distances  the  necessary  accomplices 
and  tools :  First,  men  who  were  to  act  as  magistrates  and 
form  one  of  those  peculiar  legal  devices  of  that  day  called 
Land  Courts  ;  of  which  the  function  was  to  issue  or  rather  to 
profess  to  issue  the  land  warrants  which  were  the  initial 
step  under  the  Head  Right  system.  Next,  other  men  were 
planted  or  found,  who  as  county  surveyors,  were  to  make  or 
rather  to  profess  to  make  and  return  the  locations  and  surveys 
contemplated  by  these  Warrants.  And  the  pains  were  also 
taken  to  have  all  these  official  accomplices  regularly  elected 
and  commissioned  to  the  offices  they  were  intended  to  abuse; 
their  election  to  which  was  a  thing  not  difficult  to  effect 
among  the  ignorant,  unsuspecting  settlers  scattered  thinly 
over  the  immense  wilderness.  And  it  was  this  obvious  fa- 
cility of  electing  men  that  could  be  used  as  tools,  that  un- 
doubtedly stimulated  and  encouraged,  if  it  did  not  originally 
suggest,  the  idea  of  the  great  Pine  Barren  Speculation,  the 
whole  machinery  of  which  stood  on  these  basely  designed 
elections.  Here^  too,  moreover,  we  see  the  reason  why  this 
fraud  followed  so  quickly  after  the  formation  of  Montgomery 
county  and  had  not  been  attempted  or  ever  conceived  sooner. 
For  as  long  as  the  Territory  remained  a  part  of  Washington 
county,  the  voters  entitled  to  a  voice  in  these  elections  were 


THE  PINE   BARREN  SPECULATION.  47 

altogether  too  numerous,  intelligent  arid  vigilant  to  have  per- 
mitted any  hope  of  success  in  such  a  conspiracy. 

Organized  now  and  ready  to  enter  on  their  flagitious 
work,  these  vile  persons  had  every  thing  entirely  to  them- 
selves and  in  their  own  hands.  There  were  none  to  inter- 
fere with  them,  or  emharrass,  or  deter,  and  they  carried  out 
their  projects  without  fear  and  with  gratuitous  boldness 
and  extravagance.  Not  satisfied  with  seizing  on  the  two  or 
three  millions  of  acres  that  really  existed  in  the  new  county 
and  casting  them  into  their  mint  of  fraud,  they  trebled  the 
number  and  went  to  the  length  of  issuing  and  returning 
into  the  Surveyor  General's  office,  Land  Forgeries  to  the 
amount  of  six  or  seven  millions  of  acres.  This  fact  appears 
by  two  printed  Reports,  now  before  me,  made  by  the  Survey- 
or General  in  1839  to  a  special  Finanbe  Commission,  compos- 
ed of  Judge  Berrien,  Judge  Wm.  W.  Holt  and  myself.  One 
of  these  Reports  presents  the  actual  number  of  acres  in  each 
county  of  the  State  ;  the  other,  the  number  in  each  county 
as  shown  by  the  maps  and  Records  of  the  Surveyor  General's 
affice.*  Upon  comparing  the  two,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
number  appearing  by  the  official  maps  and  records  as  lying 
in  the  original  county  of  Montgomery,  exceeds  the  true 
number,  by  several  millions.  How  did  such  a  monstrous 
excess  get  into  the  Surveyor  General's  office  and  upon  the 
maps  and  records  there  ? 

There  never  has  been,  there  never  can  be  but  one  answer 
to  this  question.  Fraud  and  forgery  aided  by  official  con- 
nivance and  corruption,  afford  the  only  solution.  There  is 
no  other  possible  way  of  accounting  for  the  phenomenon. 
Had  the  lands  been  but  moderately  fertile  or  had  they  pos- 
sessed any  other  qualities  or  accidents  of  a  nature  to  confer 
value  and  make  them  the  object  of  desire  and  competition,  it 
would  not  have  been  strange  for  the  same  thing  to  have 
happened  to  them  from  these  causes  as  from  like  reasons 
has  often  happened  elsewhere  in  rich  new  countries  under 
the  Head  Right  system  :  namely,  that  after  all  the  veritable 
land  should  have  been  actually  and  in  good  faith  first 

*St-r  copies  of  these  statements  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


48  THE   PINE   BARREN   SPECULATION. 

taken  up  and  covered  once  with  warrants  and  surveys,  the 
avidity  of  acquisition  might  have  heen  so  great  as  to  lead  to 
the  same  identical  lands  being  afterwards  again  and  again 
taken  up  by  other  persons,  thus  covering  or,  in  the  expres- 
sive phrase  coined  specially  for  the  case,  shingling  the  coun- 
try with  layer  after  layer  of  successive  competing  Head 
Right  warrants  and  claims  ,  all  which  being  returned  to  the 
Surveyor  General's  office,  necessarily  occasioned  a  great  ex- 
cess of  land  on  the  maps  and  records  there  beyond  what  ex- 
isted in  nature.  But  it  would  be  glaringly  absurd  to 
account  in  this  way  for  the  redundant  millions  in  the  Sur- 
veyor General's  office  of  the  utterly  worthless  lands  of 
which  we  are  now  speaking  ;  lands,  which  nobody  wanted 
or  would  have  even  as  a  gift,  and  for  which  there  never  has 
been  the  least  competition.  Why,  as  late  as  1839,  not  more 
than  half  the  land  in  that  region  was  (judging  by  the 
Comptroller  General's  report,  made  to  the  above  mentioned 
Finance  Commission*)  deemed  worth  owning  and  paying 
taxes  for  ;  although  the  lumber  trade  had  by  that  time 
given  some  value  to  portions  of  it  lying  near  the  rivers,  that 
had  previously  been  valueless. 

Thus  the  spuriousness  of  an  immense  proportion  of  the 
surveys  and  returns  in  question  is  manifest.  But  though 
the  most  of  them  were  undoubtedly  the  progeny  of  fraud 
and  forgery,  yet  not  all  were  so.  A  good  many  genuine 
ones  were  with  covinous  shrewdness  and  design  intermixed, 
,  and  this  intermixture  of  somewhat  that  was  genuine  was  an 
important,  well  considered  point  in  the  scheme  of  fraud,  in 
as  much  as  it  tended  to  give  color  and  unsuspectedness  to 
the  muehwhat  that  was  false,  fraudulent  and  fictitious. 

But  not  only  was  it  a  part  of  the  scheme  that  genuine 
surveys  should  be  thus  intermingled  with  the  spurious  in 
the  returns  made  to  the  Surveyor  General's  office,  but  it  was 
also  requisite  that  good  lands  should  be  lyingly  intermin- 
gled with  the  barren  on  the  maps  and  records  there.  For 
all  the  vast  quantity  of  land  real  and  fictitious  that  was 


*See  Comptroller  General's  report  at  the  end. 


PINE  BARREN   SPECULATION.'  4(J 

returned  into  the  Surveyor  Gener il'a  office  as  having  been 
duly  surveyed  and  taken  up,  could  have  been  turned  to  no 
profit  by  the  conspirators  but  lor  another  adroit  stroke  of 
villainy  to  which  they  had  recourse  and  without  which  their 
whole  plan  would  have  broken  down.  I  allude  to  the  false 
land-marks  put  on  the  maps  and  plats  of  the  surveys. 
Something  base  and  fraudulent  in  this  way  had  to  be  done 
to  enable  them  to  palm  off  any  large  amount  of  these  pine 
barrens  as  rich  lauds.  This  was,  indeed,  the  vital  point  in 
their  nefarious  strategy,  and  in  order  to  make  sure  of  it, 
they  caused  the  different  kinds  of  trees  indicative  of  a  rich 
soil,  such  as  the  oak,  the  hickory,  the  walnut,  dogwood, 
buckeye,  etc.,  to  be  entered  as  comer  and  station  trees  on  the 
maps  of  the  surveys  : — Not  however  on  the  maps  of  all  the 
immense  number  of  surveys  which  they  had  caused  to  be 
fabricated  and  returned,  but.  on  enough  of  them  to  answer 
their  purposes,  a  judicious,  deceptive  interspersing  of  lands 
marked  as  rich  among  the  barrens  which  notoriously  formed 
most  of  the  county.  Suspicion  was  thus  kept  down  and  an 
imposing  verisimilitude  attained,  and  along  with  it  as  mudi 
land  feigned  to  be  rich  as  they  could  expect  to  be  able  to 
work  off  on  ignorant  second  purchasers  or  as  they  would  be 
willing  to  pay  Grant  Fees  for. 

For  there  was  no  evading  the  payment  of  the  Grant  Fees, 
which,  though  little  in  each  case,  would  in  the  aggregate 
have  amounted  to  a  great  sum.  Up  to  this  point,  fraud  and 
forgery  had  cut  off  costs  and  labor  making  both  very  light, 
but  for  which,  the  outlay  in  office  fees  requisite  for  their 
vast  operations  would  alone  have  been  an  insuperable  iru- 
pediment  in  their  way.  But  now  fraud  and  forgery  could  no 
longer  be  made  to  serve-  any  purpose.  Their  turn  was  at  an 
end  as  soon  as  the  lorded  documents  of  survey  were  accepted 
and  registered  in  the  Surveyor  Gene» nl's  oliice.  Thence- 
forward what  had  to  be  done  was  simply  to  get  from  that 
oflice  certified  copies  of  these  maps  and  surveys,  upon 
which  being  presented  ami  passed  at  the  rest  of  the  State 
House  offices  ;  (among  others,  at  the  Treasun*,  where  the 
Grant  Fees  were  paid  and  a  receipt  countersigned  therefor,) 


50  PINE    BARREN    SPECULATION. 

genuine  Grants  under  the  Great  Seal  and  the  Governor's 
signature  were  issued  as  a  matter  of  course,  except  in  cases 
where  a  caveat  had  been  interposed,  a  thing  which  never 
happened  in  relation  to  these  lands,  there  being  no  compe- 
tition for  them. 

The  actors  in  this  huge,  concatenated  fraud  had  now  ac- 
complished so  much  of  their  programme  as  was  to  be  carried 
out  in  Georgia.  They  had  sowed  the  seed  here,  but  they 
had  to  go  elsewhere  to  reap  their  villainous  harvest.  Had 
they  dared  to  offer  their  fraudulent  and  fictitious  lands  for 
sale  here  where  their  worthlessness  and  nothingness  were  so 
well  known,  it  would  have  led  to  the  public  explo- 
sion of  their  whole  plot  and  to  their  own  no  small 
endangerment,  besides,  for  those  were  times  in  which 
such  caitiffs  felt  all  the  while  in  Georgia  no  little  dread  of 
a  certain  Judge  Lynch  who  not'unfrequently,  disgusted  with 
the  too  slow  footsteps,  or  too  dim  vision,  or  too  feeble  or  too 
uncertain  arm  of  the  more  regularly  constituted  powers, 
came  to  their  n-lief  by  a  prompt  assumption  of 
their  difficult  duties.  These  speculators  therefore  in 
barren  lands,  at  once  daring  and  cautious,  betook  them- 
selves (as  was  indeed  their  plan  from  the  outset)  to  other 
localities,  to  the  distant  places  where  their  unavowed  and 
unsuspected  copartners  and  confederates  lived  and  whence 
they  themselves  had  come  with  evil,  vile  intent  among  us. 
And  there  they  and  their  coadjutors  failed  not  to  find  those 
who  fell  victims  to  their  swindling  arts.  To  what  extent 
they  succeeded  in  effecting  sales,  in  turning  the  barrens  of 
Montgomery  into  gold  in  their  own  pockets  and  involving 
innocent,  deceived  people  in  loss  for  their  own  base  emolu- 
ment, is  of  course  unascertainable  now,  and  has  long  since 
ceased  to  be  a  matter  of  interest  or  curiosity.  That  their 
success  was  not  small,  however,  is  probable  from  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  and  from  the  general  rumor  and 
belief  which  descended  from  those  times  down  to  a  later  period. 

For  to  those  remote  parts  whither  they  hied  to  enact  the 
crowning  scene  of  their  villainy,  to  find  the  bag  of  gold  at 
the  end  of  their  tortuous  drama  of  iniquity,  fame  had  carried 


PINE   BARREN  SPECULATION.  51 

exciting  accounts  of  the  fertility  and  advantages  of  the  Ocouee 
country.  Nor  was  she  careful  in  her  loud,  undiscriminating 
praises,  to  make  due  distinction  hetvveen  the  richness  of  the 
upper  portion  and  the  sterility  of  the  lower.  People  afar  off 
were  thus  greatly  misled  and  prepared  to  he  easily  practised  up- 
on and  cheated,  and  were,  moreover,  carried  away  by  the  cheap 
rates  at  which  these  supposed  fertile  lands  were  offered  for 
sale  by  men  whom  they  cost  very  little  more  than  the 
crimes  they  had  committed  in  connection  with  them.  And 
when  in  addition,  the  solemn  grants  of  the  State  of  Georgia 
were  paraded  under  the  autographic  signatures  of  her  Gov- 
ernor and  great  State  House  officers,  with  her  huge, 
dangling,  waxen  Great  Seal  appended  and  with  also  certified 
plats  of  survey  attached  to  each  grant  under  her  Surveyor 
General's  official  hand,  richly  marked  besides  with  natural 
growth  indicative  of  a  fertile  soil,  it  is  by  no  means  surpris- 
ing that  thousands  should  have  been  befooled  and  swindled. 
And  that  such  was  the  case  contemporaneous  story  indig- 
nantly told  and  was  not  unsupported  by  after-occurring 
facts.  For  many  a  bootless  pilgrimage  from  distant  States 
and  sections  was  made  years  afterwards  by  the  sufferers  and 
their  agents  in  search  of  those  fabled  lands.  In  vain,  how- 
ever, did  they  thread  the  woods  and  interrogate  the  trees. 
No  land  marks,  no  corners  or  stations  could  they  ever  find 
responsive  to  the  well  drawn,  false  speaking  charts  they 
brought  along  with  them.  No  oaks,  and  hickories,  no  wal- 
nut, dogwood  or  buckeye,  nor  any  kindly  soil  did  they  ever 
encounter  to  cheer  their  wearisome  cxplorings  or  raise  their 
sunken  spirits.  But  barren  wastes  spread  out  sad  and  in- 
terminable before  their  eyes,  and  the  tall  sighing  pines 
sounded  a  lugubrious  sympathy  in  their  ears.  The  golden 
dreams  they  had  been  made  to  cherish  were  dispelled  for 
ever.  Reluctantly  they  awoke  to  the  bitter  reality  of  being 
the  victims  of  a  great  concocted  turpitude,  and  with  heavy 
hearts  wended  their  way  back  to  their  far  off  homes,  full 
of  indignation,  and  cursing  and  hating  more  than  ever 
before  the  villains  and  villainies  of  the  world. 


52                                       PINE   BARREN    SPECULATION. 

The    folloiving   statement    was  furnished  from  the  Surveyor 
General's  office,  June  11  Ih,  1833,  to  the  Finance  Commis- 
sion, showing  the  ACTUAL  number  of  acres  in  each  county. 

Appling                080.420     Laurens  450.500 

Baker 

899  ''97 

Lee 

340  '>03 

Baldwin 

150,100 

Liberty   ..         .     . 

393  000 

Bibb  

152,503 
''70,480 

Lowudes  
Lincoln  

1,238,203 
1  "0.720 

Bulloch  
Biirke 

005,440 
005  600 

;-t;»0  ()•',-, 

•'40  308 

Butts 

113^0301   Madison  

l'J4  800 

720,0001  Marion  

350,502 

Campbell  
Carroll 

147,903  !   Mc.Intosh  
.     ..  482.180     Meri  wether    ...    . 

422.200 
335  885 

Cass 

439,130,   Monroe  

.      .     302  (523 

Chatham 

208,800     Montgomery  

407  080 

Chattooga  
Cherokee  
Clark 

223,980 
407.780 
179  ''00 

Morgan  
Murray  

228.480 
407  740 

Musoopee  

°91  903 

Cobb 

400,901      Netfton  

250  -'99 

Columbia  

320,000  i   Oglethorpe  
.l>82  881  i  Paulding  . 

280.720 
423  017 

CrWCford 

250,319'  Pike  

20(5  902 

707,009      Pulaski  

515  355 

DeKalb 

281  •'•.3 

Putnam  
Riil  mil 

230,800 
'>4'  I  ">  1  ~» 

Dade 

ll'>  9<v; 

Dooly 

.  050,093     Randolph  

519  9(58 

Early 

(502,549,   Richmond  

'>01  000 

310  400     Scriven 

34")  000 

Flbert 

3'<>7  080  -   StfiWHrt 

482,170 
309  857 

Emannel.  

Fayette 

753,920 
....218  801 

Sumpter  

Talbot  

331  408 

Floyd 

317,343 

Taliaferro  

80  400 

Forsyth  

183,515 
499  °00 

Tat  nail 

7(51  000 

Tfilfnir  . 

904  900 

Gilmer 

530  572  i  Thomas  

900  7-'0 

253  440     Trouo  

980  100 

eene...  

268,800 
347  08'} 

Twifgs 

231,080 
419  1(58 

Union 

403  470 

Upson  

184  580 

Hall 

258  ^11 

Walker  

399  603 

2t<s.(;4o 
297,080 
105  70S 

Walton  

1(54  015 

Ware  
Warren    ... 

879,300 
''74  OOO 

Heard 

333  540 

Washington  
Wayne  

410,720 

380  100 

Houston  

392.8S4 
1,209,420 
337  ')°0 

Wilkes 

323,840 

Jackson  

Wilkinson      . 

245^760 

Total  

.     370  3">0 

35,515,520 

Jones  

241,920 

PINE    BARREN    SPECULATION. 


53 

Statement  furnished  June  17/A,  is:!'.),  to  the  Finance  Com- 
mission by  the  Surveyor  General  of  the  number  of  acres  of 
linid  in  each  county  of  the  State  agreeably  to  the.  MAPS  and 
of  his  office. 

Laurens 450.560 

Lee 310,203 

Liberty S7O,CKO 

Lincoln 11.621 

Lmvndcs 1.23S,  203 

Luinpkm .".'.it;.  02.". 

Macon 2«o.3os 

Madison 39.5  ix 

Marion  :;:.n. :.<;•_' 

Mclntosh 667.251 

482,180  [  Meriwelher 

...  439,130     Monroe 302.623 

:.:..i;i9      Montgomery  7,43(5,995 

....223,986     Morgan 228,480 


Appling  ..............................  684.426 

Bak.-r  .................................  S'.Ht.  •_".)? 

.Ha  Id  win  ..............................  159.  982 

Bibh  ..................................  152,563 

Bryan  .................................  111.091 


Burke  ................................  619.uo<5 

But  is  ..................................  113,030 

Camden  ............................  i,92S,r.8S 

Cm.;  pi  >»•!!  ............................  147,963 

Carroll  .... 

Cass  ........ 

Chatham... 
Chatt  oga. 


Columbia 145,055 

Cowetn 282,881 

(Crawford 250.319 

Decatur -. 707,609 

UoKalb 281,253 


Cheroke«.  467,780  j   Murray 4O7,74o 

Clark 22.136     Muscogee 291.;  10:5 

Cobb 406,961  !   Nowton 256,299 

Oglethorpe 55.O  i.s 

Paulding (28,617 

Pike 266,962 

Pulaski 515,355 

Putnam 2:56,  soo 

|);I(1.- 112,235  i    Rabun 248,515 

Dooly 650,693     Randolph 5'9.9r,s 

Ea'ly 602,549  !   Richmond 443.157 

Effinghiun 1,149,791  j  Scriven 242.656 

Elberi 121,870     Stewart 482.170 

Emannel 356,8(59  !   Sumpter 369.>.,7 

Fayette 218.804  j   Talbot 331,468 

Flora 317,343  i   Taliaferro 564 

Forsyth 183,515  \   Tatnall 395,840 

Franklin 5,126,548  i   Telfair 364.960 

Gilmer 53o.:,72     Thomas 900,720 

Glvnn 1,785,375  j   Tronp 280,100 

Greene 324,278  I    Twiggs 231,680 

347,083;   Union 419,168 


Gwinnett... 
Habersham 

Hall 

Hancock.... 

Harris   

Heard 

Henry 

Houston.... 
Irwin 


408,476 

258.277 

56,7?7 

297,680 

165,763 

.333,540 


TJpson 184,580 

Walker 399,663 

Walton 164,015 

Ware 879,360 

Warren 95,239 

Washington 5,018,048 


392,884  Wayne 380,360 

1,269,426  Wilkes 2,224,920 

Jackson 175.120  Wilkinson 2e8,0<>0 

Jasper 245,760  j 

Jefferson 71,593 

Jones 241,920  j 


Total 54,816,782 


A  TABLE—  Exhibiting  the  quantity    of  acres    of    1st,  2d  and  lid  qualities  and 

PijicLand—The  'number  of  Slaves—  Amount  of  Slock  in  Trade.  ,uid  >>a  ne  of 

Town  Property—  The  aggregate  number  of  acres  of  Land  —The  Tax  on  each 

quality,  and  the    aggregate  amount  of  Tax  paid  on  the    whole,  in  1  lie  Stale  of 

Georgia,  agreeably  !<>  the  Tax  Returns  of  the  several  Counties,  filed  in  the    COIHJJ. 

t  roller  General's    O,  /ire  for  the  year  IS.'iS. 

Counties. 

1st 
(utility 

2d. 

3d. 

Pine. 

M..ck    in 
Trade. 

Town 
Property. 

Slaves 

Appling,  

393'            8,330           f',2i)4 

81,000 

3  .700 

205 

Baker  

3,977 

33  716 

l:i..M7 

72,143 

74,750 

8,900 

70S 

Baldwin,  

5,252 

82,740 

57,871 

129,2(11 

182.900 

251.075 

4,«25 

Bibb,  

11,996 

86,529 

78,113 

159,423 

732,447 

1,34J,  105 

4,  4'  18 

Bryan,  

3,123 

16,761 

10,993 

130,556 

1,800 

3.846       1,847 

Bnlloch  

1,810 

11,229 

12,08(1 

416,725 

7,900 

847 

Burke,  

1  ,935 

47,  7.">  J 

288,483 

352,824 

18,602 

27.100 

6,417 

Butts,  

•2,2:,:; 

54,396 

99,641 

28,924 

19,450 

3:»,3:!7 

I;«19 

(  'aimlen,  

12,591 

39,902 

26.9SO 

304,643 

96,436 

117,592 

3,256 

Campbell,  ..  . 

4,339 

43,222 

88,683 

27,333 

17,'i8(i 

8,031 

875 

Carroll,  

890 

43,121 

69,019 

24,642 

10,905 

8,759 

280 

Cass,  

18,220 

76,184 

64,645 

10,279 

44,250 

35,218 

1,137 

Chatham,  

067,589      2,04s,  792 

11,136 

Cherokee,  ..  . 

4,276 

38,897 

42,706 

9,676 

20,194 

12,2110 

321 

Chattooga,  .  . 

0,000 

0,000 

1  1,1  II  Ml 

0.000 

000 

000 

001) 

Clark,  

6,033 

06.532 

250,792 

102,5112 

108,312 

300,995 

4,895 

Cobb,  

2,425 

55,  9:(2 

52.313 

5,152 

19,501 

30,425 

381 

Columbia,  .  .  . 

l,77l> 

87,876 

146,075 

1*4,684 

19,076 

16,682 

6,832 

Coweta,  .    .  . 

5,437 

126,412 

124,476 

102,134 

52,305 

3s,  1  35 

2.6K3 

Crawford,  .  .  . 

2,110 

69,  7S'I 

50,61.9 

525,150 

65,629 

15,3s5,      2,462 

Dado,  

580 

5,315 

5  ,246 

882 

800 

36 

Decatur,.  .  .  . 

4,990 

50,756 

22,848 

120,100 

53,224 

13,113        1,750 

DeKalb,  

4,7*4 

83,723 

216,871 

31,784 

90.96:, 

66,625;       1,622 

Dooly,.   

3,208 

26,207 

5,157 

136,094 

30,846 

14,  70S 

781 

Early  

4,580 

45,953 

14,687 

96,632 

40,550           64,225 

1,580 

Elbert,  

4,056 

52,191 

222,363 

80.4H5           49,970 

3.166 

Effingham,... 

957 

2,417 

13,857 

222,398 

3,371 

1,211 

Eiiianuel  

453 

12,700 

1  1  ,524 

389,916 

4,133                800 

568 

Fayette,.  

1,278 

80,207 

107,201 

23,419 

27.181:          22,707 

1,1  -'4 

Floyd  

14,404 

73,928 

65,814 

27,637 

51,320 

22,010 

1,342 

Franklin,  .... 

3,554 

55,045 

357,270 

56,062 

18,562 

17,390 

2,159 

Forsyth  

4,348 

43,193 

56,897 

11,840 

20,320 

28,249 

447 

Gilmer,  

2,211 

7,343 

26,924                '571 

2,838 

2,401 

35 

Glynn,  

2,090 

21,959 

9,721 

121,804 

14350 

2s,  456 

2,666 

Greene,  

5,  MS           76,746 

179,327 

53,750 

118.4^7 

3T,S37 

5,595 

j     Gwiniiett,  .    . 

2.9SS           61,463 

246,139 

47,817 

45,052 

31,460 

1,914 

Habershain,.. 

7,074           31.9S7 

95,953 

813,688 

36.713 

26,718 

843 

Hall  

4,708 

48,268 

232,738 

17,882 

30,665 

14,290 

957 

Hancock,  

2,43s 

54,090 

162,506 

173,431 

83,900 

69,887 

5,424 

Harris,  

7,0(il 

183,002 

110,129 

27,325 

60,452 

104,831 

4,311 

Heard,  

5,911 

58,275 

61,737 

32,482 

27,720 

12,035 

1,367 

Henry,  

1,790 

119,231 

220,633 

42,204 

69,83s 

35,023 

2,925 

Houston,  

6.0J5 

88,830 

32,867 

226,290 

59,213 

35,736 

4,199 

Irwin  

5,369 

3,OOU 

84,755 

2,300!            1,114 

204 

Jackson,  

2,345 

66,31)6 

244,606 

51,381 

2:i,li>8           12,550 

2,356 

Jasper,  

2,270 

113,9.17 

168,661 

40,349 

101,441           7-S.125 

5,244 

Jefferson,.  .  .  . 

1,602 

45,952 

91.062 

278,584 

46.600           21.096 

4.327- 

Jones,  

2,363  1        139,636 

129J455 

262  521  1        53760           41459       5  K5H 

Laurens,  
Lee  

5,918[        156,7531       54,666 
9,124!          38,668;       23,271 

16,322!        13,350           21,319 
95,282         15.000           15.000 

2,168 
1.263 

Liberty,  

4,104           43.754J       23.69b 

199,624 

8  «50 

22,248       5  326 

Lincoln  

4,520'         50,9391     135,708 

62,286 

24,603 

10,340       3,253 

Lowndes,  

1,330 

7:),094        12.608 

265,334           3.534 

3,443          678 

Luinpkin,  .... 

3,658 

21,984 

21,057 

13,8lb 

58,665 

58,920 

354 

Macon,  

1,856 

26,015 

16,631 

141,773 

2,350 

1,159 

Madison  

526 

12,07( 

191,517 

26,670 

8,951 

5,92! 

1,336 

Monroe  

4,777 

180,742 

23!,87( 

105,192 

100,820 

106,  591 

9,361 

Mclntosh,  .... 

3"  ,700 

46,868 

31,871 

188,015 

87,466 

111,932 

3.798 

Mcriwether,.. 

5,255 

158,70: 

132,492 

60,18fi 

77,851 

37,7  1: 

4,384 

Marion,  

1,132 

41,01'J 

14,957 

93,418 

11,600 

8,551 

784 

Montgomery, 

1,600'          13,150          3,387 

74,404           2,200'               25f 

357 

PINE  BARREN   SPECULATION.                                       55 

Counties. 

l8t 

quality 

2d. 

Ml 

Pi,,... 

Trade. 

Town 
Property. 

Slaves 

Morga,  
Murray  

5,082 
7,291 

180.1^  K» 

j:'-U(           ll!;i;i:i 

111.SS2 
14.1HP 

64,0.50 

123 

M  n  sconce  

9,6(4 

102/.68 

82,340 

"2  It'.'tM 

687,678 

1,188,  

Newton  

887 

113,490 

li:j,:W7 

64,01  r> 

2.'MW 

Onletliorp-  

4.47f» 

IH.JII 

S3..VI.-, 

4ti  %4S 

64,708 

r.  •'•"., 

Paiilding,  

1  ,.'...*'. 

11.  Ml.! 

-J.MK, 

261 

I'ike  

•ji>  :'!:> 

7(.t.  r,(;r. 

1 

r,H,44-.t 

•J-J.7  1  1 

MM 

1'ulaski,  

5,764 

46J024 

40.>47 

160,912 

10/HHI 

2,805 

Putnam  

3:806 

112,413 

4.",..  'Hit, 

>7  lIMI 

S"'  il'.t 

6,663 

Kal.uu  

2,1  K»l 

11,260 

7'iji-jn 

2,160 

78 

I(an.lol|,|,  

3,601 

Us  366 

;\*>^\\\ 

114.121* 

16,760 

•_-|.:,~n 

1  .V)7 

Richmond,  

ll.'.M  IS 

61J225 

7.t.'(*^! 

l.~'~'~'.l  "'  > 

2.171.17" 

Serive,,  

6,129 

27.912 

30.073 

280,026 

2.477 

Stewart  

1,980 

5,822 

164,  1(« 
88,286 

lo.lll.-, 

174,087 

121,225 

3.452 
!I7'I 

Siimter,  

Taliate'r'i-o,".  '.'.'.'.'.'.. 

8,290 

4.IH3 

26,806 

1  1  7.731 

78,711 

25.275 

94,168 
70,018 

:..U4«i:     .-...MI 

2,401 

Tattnall  

380 

14,619 

1't  ;'r|n 

487,162 

•J.O.HI 

1.IHMI 

l»."»4 

Teltair  

510 

13,870 

14,611 

313,618, 

9,700 

MINI 

•n 

Thomas  

2,639 

64.749 

11,714 

23i  OO5 

.%:;...  :,o 

Troiip  

11,183  i        110,177 

BUM 

2  12!  124 

71.4«;7 

6,436           94.425 

:.  ..'j-1 

140,244 

.",i  tir.t 

13,9M 

4.H74 

Cnion  

l.-.Hn 

13.588 

80493 

i.ni 

I.tKIt 

62 

I'pson  
Walker  

3,0081          84,722 
7.'.I30            65,46:1 

100,467 

61,509 

10^368 

47.730 
30,010 

•H4o3 

3,437 
7l>8 

Warren 

--J           39,750 

07.212 

04.41  Hi 

60,310 

:(.".,  771 

(     1  "i.'i 

Walton.......................... 

3.00B 

li  '2.073 

t 

36,990 

53,700 

12,943 

Wa^hiiitrton  

4,034 

61,610 

l-u:>s 

377.312 

48,875 

3.444 

Wa.Mie  

MO 

1,843 

2,3.'j8 

67,710 

c.rttHi 

106 

1,002 

10^83 

:,.4ss 

41,271 

200 

81 

w'i  1  ki'-s.'.V  ........'.'....... 

2,889 

72.981 

•4s.4'.i7 

7'j.:,4n 

73^  «l 

117,<>88 

6,681 

Wilkinson,  

1,472          36,833 

269,830 

9,772 

1,695 

410.41.'    10,604,331 

8,0.'.7.293 

10.4-.I4.-.I7 

7,244,994 

11.059,144;  242,923 

LAND.                                      , 

AMOI  NT  OF  TAX    1'AII'  "N    KA«  II. 

~ 

AVERAGE  TAX. 

1st  qualitv  

410,415; 

!l  5-8  mills  per  acre  3.9.j»  74 

2.1         "    '  

16,601.331' 

,-|  ti-^ 

*,.),!    73 

3rd      "       

8,067,293 

•1  1-J 

"         1.712   17 

1o  -IL,   -07 

1  6-8 

1,259  35 

Total  number  of  acre*                    35  afif,  :Ufi 

Stock  in  Trade  

At  15  5-8  cts.  per 

1.  :',-'<>  30 
7  "7!t  9J 

7,244.!  »94 

$100  1 
i                                      1 

Town   Property  
Slaves  

!..!!!............     '242'923 

"  15  5-8  per  Slave  :'.7.'.'.-.0  71 

T«toi  To»                                                     "V'  92 

The  whole  amount  of  taxes  paid,  agreeably  to  the  returns  made,  is  $111,338  44 

CHATHAM  COVNTV.—  The  quantity  and  quality  of  Land  returned  in  this  county  cannot  be  as- 

certained from  the  Tax  Book  returned,  and  not 

ncluded  in  the  foregoing  additions. 

CHATTOOGA  COUNTY.—  No  returns  have  been  received  from  this  county. 

COMPTROLLER  GE> 

ERAL'S  OFFICE,  Millodgeville,  21st  June,  1839. 

GF.NTIT.MT.N  :  —  In  com 

pliance  with  your    etter  of  the  2d  April   last,  the  foregoing  Tabular 

have  been  prepared  at  an  earlier  period,  but  for 

the  great  labor  necessary  in  obtaining  from  the 

books  in  this  Depart!,," 

,it.  rorre.-l    informatio. 

as  to 

the  several  classifications  of  Land,  &c.« 

•  leHireil.  aii'l  the  .litti.-ult 

y  of  procurinc  compete 

nt  aroit 

•form  the  work. 

I   a 

.    ,  fully  y 

ii  obedient  s,  rvanl. 

.1. 

HI  N    (. 

PA  i;K.  .  to  apt. 

To   M..KM-R.  A.  II-  <'l)iipp« 

11,  J.  M.  Kerrien.a  „!  W.  W.    loll,  C  ,miii;-io:i.-i-    .\,-. 

56  THE    YAZOO    FRAUD. 


THF  YAZOO  FRAUD— SECTION  I. 

The  great  Yazoo  Fraud  was  conceived  earlier  than  the 
Pine  Barren  Speculation,  hut  as  it  had  a  much  longer  gesta- 
tion, it  turned  out  that  the  two  reached  their  hirth  about 
the  same  time,  and  were  consequently  contemporaneous 
though  not  twin  villainies;  for  there  never  was  any  actual 
connection  between  them  either  as  to  facts  or  persons.  It 
would  be  impossible  for  people  nowadays  to  form  an  ade- 
quate idea  of  the  immense  and  almost  wild  stir  and  excite- 
ment caused  by  the  Yazoo  Fraud  in  its  day  ;  and  it  was  by 
no  means  a  short  any  more  than  a  commonplace  day  that  it 
had.  Not  only  was  it  radicated  far  back  in  the  then  Past, 
but  curious  explorers  will  detect  its  roots  and  ramifications 
interwoven  with  national  matters  of  that  period  important 
enough  to  claim  a  place  in  history.  And  when  we  come 
down  later  and  take  a  view  of  the  great  cancerous  abomina- 
tion in  its  several  vicissitudes  and  more  advanced  stages,  how 
complicated  it  is  seen  to  become  alike  in  its  facts  and  in  the 
questions  and  principles  it  involves!  How  the  huge  villainy 
stands  out  and  strikes  us,  distent  with  odious  interest  and 
energy  at  every  turn,  making  its  way  over  all  obstacles, 
discouragements  and  delays,  first  through  the  State  Legisla- 
ture, next  through  the  Cabinet,  Courts  and  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  end,  after  near  twenty  years  of 
unholy  striving  and  perseverance,  triumphing  at  last  and 
plunging  its  felonious  hands  deep  into  the  National  Treas- 
ury. 

That    memorable  crime  which  was  consummated  in  the 
Legislature  of  Georgia  on  the  7th  of  January,   17'J5,  is  the 


THE  YAZOO   FRAUD.  57 

one  to  which  I  am  now  referring.  The  intelligence  of  it  no 
sooner  reached  Washington  than  it  caused  him  great  con- 
cern, for  he  instantly  saw  its  enormity  and  datigerousness, 
having  already  a  few  years  previously  had  to  deal  (and  stern 
and  decisive  was  thatdealing)  with  its  comparatively  innocent 
and  Irss  formidable  and  now  almost  forgotten  predecessor, 
the  much  smaller  Yazoo  Sale  of  1780.  Upon  obtaining 
from  Augusta,  then  the  seat  of  Government  of  Georgia,  the 
authentic  documents  on  the  subject,  he  hastened  on  the  10th 
of  February,  17015,  to  lay  them  before  Congress  with  a  mes- 
sage in  which  he  characterised  the  matter  as  one  "of  exceed- 
ing magnitude,  that  might  in  its  consequences  affect  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  United  States."  But  Georgia  on 
this  occasion  saved  trouble  to  the  National  Authorities,  or 
rather  she  staved  it  off'  to  a  remoter  day.  For,  as  if  seeking 
to  make  amends  for  her  apathy  in  regard  to  the  Yazoo  Sale 
of  1780,  she  was  now  tierce  and  rapid  in  her  action,  and 
stepping  forward  at  once  she  of  her  own  mere  motion  and 
with  her  sole  arm  struck  down  this  new  and  more  monstrous 
Yazoo  crime  to  which  corruption  had  just  given  birth  on  her 
soil,  leaving  to  the  Federal  Administration  at  that  time  no 
other  task  to  perform  in  relation  to  it  than  mere  arraign- 
ment and  some  steps  of  precaution  and  inquiry.  It  was 
only  a  temporary  respite,  however,  that  resulted  to'  the 
United  States  from  the  indignant,  patriotic  promptitude  of 
the  State.  For  it  turned  out  that  the  Hydra  was  only 
"scotched,  not  killed"  by  Georgia.  In  a  few  years  it 
came  to  life  again,  developing  a  new  head  not  vulnerable  to 
the  blows  of  the  State  and  only  amenable  to  the  National 
arm,  and  from  thenceforward  it  unceasingly  harassed  the 
United  States  and  exhibited  such  pernicious  and  deathless 
faculties  for  mischief  and  annoyance  that,  finally  in  1814, 
Congress  was  glad  to  give  up  the  warfare  and  compromise 
with  the  great  iniquity  by  passing  a  Bill  appropriating  five 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  appeasing  of  its  claims. 

Into  the  politics  »>f  Georgia   it  continued   to   be  ever  and 
anon   draped  for  years  afterwards   laden    with  unforgiven 


58  THE    YAZOO    FRAUD. 

guilt  and  intense  public  odium.  At  length  in  the  year  1825, 
in  the  first  popular  election  for  Governor  we  ever  had,  and 
by  far  the  hottest  and  fiercest  known  to  our  annals,  a  fiery 
farewell  eruption  of  this  old  political  Vesuvius  gf  the  State 
was  provoked  by  Nome  slight  unfavorable  reminiscences  that 
were  stirred  up  connected  with  the  name  of  one  the  candi- 
dates for  the  office.  For  our  people  had  not  learned  even 
down  to  that  period  to  pardon  to  any  man  the  smallest  par- 
ticipation in  that  great  parricidal  crime.  And  if  their  ven- 
geance has  not  been  since  inflamed  in  regard  to  it,  it  is 
only  because  time  has  both  extinguished  the  causes  and 
dimmed  the  recollections  by  which  it  could  be  kindled  anew. 
The  wonderment,  perplexity  and  curiosity  which  the  very 
word  Yazoo  used  to  excite  in  juvenile  minds  in  Georgia  fifty 
and  sixty  years  ago  I  have  never  been  able  to  forget.  Its 
strange  exotic  sound  to  the  ear  and  look  in  print  was  the 
first  and  not  a  very  small  thing.  Then,  besides,  it  was  a 
word  which  had  evidently  long  been,  as  it  still  was, 
perfectly  familiar  in  the  mouths  of  all  elderly  and  full  grown 
people,  so  much  so,  that  taking  it  to  be  universally  under- 
stood they  never  bethought  them  that  it  needed  explanation 
to  anybody,  no,  not  even  to  the  listening  boy  whom  they  saw 
sitting  silent  and  attentive.  Most  frequently  it  was  of  the 
Yazoo  Fresh  they  spoke,  yet  often  of  the  Yazoo  Fraud. 
Sometimes  it  was  the  Yazoo  Sale  and  the  Yazoo  Lands,  and 
then  again  the  Yazoo  Script  and  Yazoo  Shares.  *  The  Yazoo 
Legislature,  the  Yazoo  Speculators  and  Yazoo  Companies 
were  likewise  frequent  topics,  nor  was  the  story  of  the  burn- 
ing of  the  Yazoo  Act  with  fire  drawn  from  heaven  by  Gen. 
Jackson  with  a  sun-glass  left  untold.  Thus  numerous,  va- 
rious and  unlike  were  the  things  called  by  name  of  Yazoo; 
and  all  of  them  too  so  much  the  theme  of  talk  !  And  yet 
where  was  Yazoo,  and  what  was  it  ?  It  seemed  to  be 
all  over  Georgia  and  yet  no  mention  was  ever  made  of  any 
place  in  or  out  of  Georgia  where  it  was  to  be  found  or  seen. 
Was  there,  indeed,  any  such  place,  and  if  there  was,  why 
should  it  cause  so  much  talk  and  give  its  name  to  so  many 


THE   YAZOO   FRAUD.  59 

arid  such  different  things  ?  Or,  perhaps  it  was  not  a  place, 
but  only  a  thing;  and  if  so,  why  was  it  such  a  noted  thing, 
and  why  were  so  many  other  things  baptized  with  its  name? 
And  did  it  pertain  to  land  or  water,  or  was  it  amphibious 
and  akin  to  both?  All  was  vague,  misty,  mysterious,  per- 
plexed, yet  pervaded  not  doubtfully  with  the  general  idea  of 
somewhat  that  was  sinister,  abhorrent  and  damnable. 

This  uncertainty,  however,  which  tormented  young  imag- 
inations was  more  and  more  dispelled,  so  far  at  least  as  the 
question  between  land  and  water  was  concerned,  by  every 
spell  of  heavy,  unrelenting  rains,  by  every  extraordinary  and 
destructive  inundation  of  the  creeks  and  rivers.  These  oc- 
currences never  failed  to  renew  arid  strengthen  the  associa- 
tion in  youthful  minds  between  Yazoo and  water.  For  then 
the  Yazoo  Fresh  was  sure  to  be  in  the  ascendant  in  people's 
mouths  and  thoughts.  Another  Yazoo  Fresh  was  feared  or 
threatened,  or  such  another  fall  of  rain  and  rise  of  the  wateis 
had  never  been  seen  since  the  great  Yazoo  Fresh  when  all 
the  streams  and  rivers  rose  high  above  all  former  water- 
marks and  the  mountain  torrents  and  windows  of  heaven 
were  opened  to  swell  the  proud  (Savannah,  and  the  glorious 
river  vindicating  the  honor  of  its  banks,  swept  in  angered 
majesty  over  the  scene  so  lately  desecrated  by  a  monstrous 
and  unprecedented  public  villainy,  and  for  the  first  time  arid 
the  last  too  for  more  than  forty  years,  made  beauteous 
Augusta,  Georgia's  capital,  a  subaqueous  and  navigable 
city. 

Terruit  Urbem  ; 
Terruit  civcs,  grav«  ne  redirer 
Sacculum  Pyrrhae  nova  monstra  questse, 
Omne  cum  Proteus  pecus  egit  altos 

Visere  monies  ; 

PiM-ium  et  snmma  gonus  harsit  nlmo 
Nola  qurr  series  fuerat  cnlumliis, 
Kt  Mipi'i 'jccio  paviil:i-  nat,iniiit 
Acquorc  damae. 


60  THE   YAZOO   FRAUD. 

Vidimus  flavum  Tiherim  rotortis 
Littore  Etrusco  violenter  undis 
Ire  drjectum  momementa  Regis 
Templaqtie  Vestse.  # 

But  the  watery  visitation  lasted  not.  long.  The  whelming 
flood  rushed  quickly  away,  as  if  hastening  in  sorrow  from 
the  havoc  it  had  done  and  left  the  broad  riparian  plain  which 
Augusta  adorns,  bare  to  the  genial  sun  once  more  and  to 
the  woful  gaze  of  men.  And  also  in  years  ensuing,  when  more 
time  and  knowledge  had  accrued  to  the  younger  folks,  the 
idea  of  water  associated  with  Yazo.i  gradually  subsided  from 
their  minds  and  in  its  stead,  land  and  fraud  and  many  cog- 
nate abominations  came  up  to  view  and  grew  to  the  name 
and  asserted  themselves  the  originals  to  which  the  alien 
word  was  first  applied  in  Georgia.  For  it  was  a  word  not 
native  here.  It  was  outlandish  in  its  origin,  born  in  a  dis- 
tant savage  nook  and  imported  from  thence  across  hundreds 
of  miles  of  Indian  wilderness  and  odiously  denizened 
amongst  us.  Its  birth  place  and  long  its  only  and  sinless 
home,  where  its  utterance  called  not  up  remembrances  of 
turpitude,  was  far  away  on  the  confines  of  the  Mississippi, 

*As  it  may  be  interesting  to  the  non-latinist  to  see  in  an  English  poetic  dress 
these  fine  stanzas  from  Horace  describing  an  inundation  of  the  Tiber  at  Rome, 
I  subjoin  a  translation  by  Covington,  which  may  perhaps  also  have  some  inter- 
est for  the  classical  scholar  both  on  account  of  its  own  merits  and  as  showing 
the  unapproachableness  of  the  original : 

Appalled- the  city, 

Appalled  the  cit'zens,  lest  Pyrrah's  time 
Return  with  all  its  monstrous  sights, 
When  Proteus  led  his  flocks  to  climb 
The  mountain  heights; 

When  fish  were  in  the  elm  tops  caught 
Where  once  the  stock  dove  wont  to  bide, 
And  deer  were  floating,  all  distraught, 

Adown  the  tide. 

Old  Tiber,  hurled  in  tumult  back 
From  mingling  with  the  Etruscan  main, 
•     Has  threatened  Numa's  Court  with  wreck 
And  Vesta's  fane 


THE   YAZOO   FRAUD.  61 

in  the  land  of  the  Ohoctaws,  a  region  as  wild  to  the  eye  as 
its  own  sound  to  the  ear.  There  it  had  been  for  unknuwn 
ages  articulated  by  barbarian  tongues  as  the  name  of  a 
petty  stream  meandering  sluggishly  from  the  North  to  lo^e 
itself  in  the  bosom  of  the  Leather  of  Floods.  But  what  made 
that  petty  stream  so  important  and  how  came  it  to  supplant 
not  only  the  Alabama,  the  Tuscaloosa,  and  the  Tombigbee, 
but  the  great  Tennessee  and  even  the  mighty  Mississippi 
itself,  and  to  impose  its  own  ignoble  name  in  preference  to 
all  theips  on  the  immense  lerritory  watered  by  them  all, 
and  also  on  the  stupendous  feat  of  villainy  of  which  that 
territory  was  the  subject  matter  and  prize  ?  These  are  points 
which  used  of  yore  to  bother  not  a  little  the  heads  of  both 
old  and  young  in  Georgia  and  which,  1  durst  opine,  may  be 
still  obscure  to  many  at  the  present  day.  But  even  if  it  be 
so,  there  is  little  reason  why  I  should  hang  b#ck  longer 
from  my  destined  task  in  order  now  to  lift  the  veil  arid  clear 
up  the  mystery.  For  it  is  one  of  those  curiosities  of  Ameri- 
can territorial  history  and  controversy  the  explication  of 
which  will  assuredly  come  out  in  the  course  of  that  handling 
of  the  Yazoo  Fraud  upon  which  it  is  high  time  I  should 
enter,  if  indeed  I  would  redeem  the  promise  held  out  in  the 
heading  of  this  chapter. 

SECTION  II. 

Beyond  doubt  no  greater  or  more  consequential  event  of  a 
mere  worldly  character  has  ever  happened  in  the  world  than 
the  discovery  and  settlement  of  America.  What  an  infinite 
variety  and  multitude  of  things  new  and  momentous  under 
the  sun  have  been  owing  directly  and  indirectly  to  that  vast 
and  pregnant  occurrence  !  How  it  has  teemed  with  results  of 
all  sorts  and  sixes,  creating  new,  modifying  or  annihilating 
old  interests,  reaching  all  over  the  globe,  and  sure  of  per- 
vading all  futurity  !  Among  the  earliest  and  most  striking 
of  the  novelties  to  which  it  gave  birth,  was  the  practice 
originated  by  Spain  on  this  continent  of  what  may  be  called 
conquest  by  contract;  by  the  associated  enterprise,  capital, 


62  THE   YAZOO    FRAUD. 

cupidity  and  ambition  of  bodies  of  private  adventurers,  act- 
ing at  their  own  pecuniary  cost,  though  under  regal  sanc- 
tion and  protection,  and  enjoying  a  meretricious  partnership 
with  royalty  in  the  honor  of  ruling  and  the  lucre  of  plun- 
dering the  conquered  countries.  War  and  the  acquirement 
by  force  of  new  dominions  was  by  this  cruel  means  rendered 
easy  and  unexpensive  to  a  government  sitting  enthroned 
and  uneridangered  across  the  Atlantic,  ignorant  or  unthink- 
ing of  the  diabolical  lawlessness  and  inhumanity  which 
sprang  from  its  policy  and  sullied  its  arms,  and  which  have 
indelibly  tarnished  the  Spanish  name.  It  was  thus  that 
Mexico  was  subdued  for  Spain  by  Cortes,  Peru  by  Pizzaro. 
Such  too  was  the  origin  of  the  atrocious,  warlike  wanderings 
of  Fernando  deSoto*  arid  his  -martial  companions,  over  the 
immense  regions  stretching  Northwardly  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  which  at  that  day  and  for  a  long  while  afterwards 
were  massed  by  the  Spaniards  under  the  then  comprehensive 
name  of  Floridaf  and  which  now  form  in  addition  to  the 
present  Florida,  the  great  States  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi, Tennessee,  Arkansas  and  Louisiana.  If  what  was 
first  seen  and  known  of  the  New  World  warranted  its  dis- 
coverers in  calling  its  inhabitants  barbarians,  assuredly 
cause  enough  was  soon  given  to  those  barbarians  for  regard- 
ing the  civilized  new-comers  as  demons,  who  had  on  a  sud- 
den preternaturally  appeared  among  them  to  be  the  curse  of 
their  land  and  the  destroyers  of  their  race. 

The  course  of  Great  Britain,  however,  towards  the  natives 
in  those  parts  of  America  colonized  or  acquired  by  her  was 
nobler  and  more  humane.  She  sought  not  to  enslave  or 
oppress  or  plunder  them,  or  to  extort  tribute  from  them  like 
the  Spaniards,  nor  did  she  imitate  the  bad  Spanish  example 
of  sentencing  them  to  be  brought  under  her  yoke  by  the 
agency  of  armed  bodies  of  irresponsible  free  booters  wearing 
their  Monarch's  livery  and  flaunting  his  license,  and  only 

•Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States.  Chapter  2d.  Vol.  1.  Pickett's 
History  of  Alabama.  Chapter  1.  Vol.  1. 

|Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States.     Vol.  1.  Page  GO. 


THE   YAZOO   FRAUD.  63 

the  more  licentions  because  so  licensed,  and  who  emula- 
ted the  worst  piratical  hordes  in  their  infamous  disregard 
of  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nations.  It  was  on  the  contrary 
the  pervading  principle  of  the  policy  of  Great  Britain,  that 
war  and  peace,  negotiations  and  treaties  with  the  Indians 
and  all  territorial  acquisitions  from  them,  whether  by  con- 
quest, purchase,  or  in  any  other  way,  should  be  strictly 
affairs  of  Government  to  be  transacted  only  by  and  through 
its  recognized  officers  and  agents,  civil  or  military,  and 
never  to  be  given  up  to  private  hands,  or  subordinated  to 
private  interests  of  any  kind,  or  under  any  circumstances. 
Equally  contrary  was  it  to  the  British  system  for  the 
Government  to  sell  or  convey  to  private  persons  or  compa- 
nies the  right  of  soil  in  any  lands  before  the  aboriginal  title 
therein  had  been  first  regularly  extinguished  by  the  Govern- 
ment itself,  nor  would  the  Government  in  any  manner, 
direct  or  indirect,  warrant  or  tolerate  private  individuals 
or  companies  in  buying  or  conquering  lands  from  the 
Indians.  Such  rights  and  all  others  affecting  the  con- 
trol over  Indian  relations,  it  always  retained  to  itself 
and  vigilantly  guarded  as  a  high  and  incommunicable  pre- 
rogative. 

This  bare  statement  of  what  the  two  systems  were  shows 
the  ineffable  superiority  of  the  British  over  the  Spanish  in 
point  of  justice,  good  mowals,  wisdom,  and  humanity.  And 
to  the  latest  times,  upright  and  enlightened  natures  among 
us  will  continue,  when  recalling  the  harrowing  scenes 
through  which  even  Anglo- America  had  to  pass  in  her  long 
process  of  colonization  and  settlement,  to  find  an  exalted 
satisfaction  in  rememhering  the  correct  and  humane  maxims 
towards  the  Indians  practised  by  our  great  ancestral  nation, 
and  handed  down  by  her  to  us  as  a  part  of  that  blessed 
national  inheritance  which  war,  revolution  and  the  rending 
of  all  the  ties  of  national  unity  were  not  able  to  cause  us  to 
surrender  or  lose.  Nor  let  it  be  forgotten  that  the  advan- 
tage of  observing  these  maxims  was  always  mutual  and 
eminently  reciprocal  between  us  and  the  Indians.  Whilst 


G4  THE   YAZOO    FRAUD. 

they  were  rendered  thereby  more  secure  against  the  intru- 
sions, and  outrages  of  bad  and  lawless  white  people,  our  fron- 
tiers were  at  the  same  time  more  exempt  from  Indian  incur- 
sions and  depredations,  and  our  whole  country  from  the  hor- 
rors and  calamities  of  Indian  wars. 

Right  here  then  at  this  point  the  first  great  damning  fea- 
ture of  the  Yazoo  crime  presents  itself  to  view  in  its  viola- 
tions of  these  benign,  long  consecrated  principles  of  our 
Indian  policy — principles  so  dear  to  peace,  righteousness  and 
humanity  in  our  relations  with  the  Indians,  of  such  pervad- 
ing and  perpetual  importance,  and  so  much  demanding  uni- 
form and  universal  enforcement,  that  the  makers  of  our  new 
Federal  Constitution  deemed  it  their  duty  to  incorporate 
them  in  that  great  instrument  among  the  trusts  exclusively 
assigned  to  the  General  Government.  And  there  they  have 
ever  since  been  preserved,  wrapped  up  in  the  great  powers 
of  war  and  peace,  the  treaty  making  power  and  the  power  to 
regulate  commerce  with  the  Indian  tribes.  Nor  did  the  new 
Government  after  getting  into  operation  long  defer  the  ne- 
cessary legislation  for  giving  full  effect  to  these  inherent 
principles  of  the  Constitution.  And  moreover  such  was  the 
estimation  in  which  Georgia  herself  soon  came  to  hold  these 
principles,  that  when  Gen.  Jackson  and  his  compatriots  in 
1798  undertook  the  work  of  framing  a  new  Constitution  for 
the  State,  warned  by  the  then  recent  Yazoo  enormity  and 
determined  to  take  away  the  possibility  of  its  repetition, 
they  took  care  to  insert  in  that  Constitution  a  prohibition 
against  the  sale  of  any  of  the  State's  Indian  territory  to 
individuals  or  companies,  unless  after  the  Indian  right  there- 
to should  have  been  extinguished  and  the  territory  formed 
into  counties. 

Grossly  disregardful,  however,  of  these  great  and  sacred 
principles  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  unhappily  showed 
itself  to  be  on  two  occasions  during  the  period  of  the  early 
immaturity  of  the  State.  Men  not  of  us,  men  from  abroad, 
many  of  them  of  fair,  some  of  them  of  high  name,  had  long 
had  their  avaricious  gaze  fixed  on  Georgia's  vast  and  fertile 


THE  TAZOO   FRAUD.  65 

Indian  domain  (great  speculations  in  wild  lands  were  a  fash- 
ion and  a  rage  in  those  days)  and  they  had  conspired  with 
self-seeking,  influential  persons  among  our  own  people  to  en- 
rich themselves  by  despoiling  the  State  of  it  on  a  huge  scale. 
For  years  they  had  stood  on  the  watch  for  a  favorable  mo- 
ment ior  taking  hold.     The  main  cause  which    had  kept 
them  back  was  the  unsettled  state  of  the  title,  which  was  in 
strong  dispute  between  South   Carolina  and  Georgia,  and 
they  cared  not  to  have  to  treat  with  two  contending  States,  or 
to  buy  from  either  what  was  contested  and  claimed  by  the 
other.     At  length  by  the  convention  of  Beaufort,  in  April, 
1787,  this  dispute  was  settled  in  favor  of  Georgia,  and  its 
settlement  would  have  been  the  signal  for  an  open,  energetic 
movement  of  the  laud-seekers  on  our  very  next  Legislature 
but  for  the  fact  that  an  exceedingly  formidable  competitor 
appeared  on  the  carpet,  whom  it  was  deemed  best  first  to 
dispose  of  and  get  out  of  the  way.     This  competitor  was 
none  other  than  the  Continental  Congress  itself,  which  some 
years  before  had  made  earnest  appeals  to  the  States  owning 
Indian  lands  to  cede  them  to  the  United  States  as  a  fund 
for  paying   the  Revolutionary   debt.     Georgia   not  having 
made  any  response  to  these  appeals,  Congress,  in  October, 
1787,  at  its  first  session  after  the  Beaufort  Convention,  ur- 
gently called  upon  her  again  to  follow  the  magnanimous 
example  of  Virginia  and  other  States  and  make  the  much 
desired  cession.     The  Legislature  in  February  ensuing,  re- 
sponded to  the  call,  but  how  ?     Why,  by  offering  to  make  a 
cession  confined  to  the  territory  south  of  the  Yazoo  line,  the 
part  most  compromised  by  the  litigous  pretentious  of  Spain, 
as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  and  that  offer,  too,  clogged  with 
conditions  impossible  to  be  accepted  by  Congress.     Where- 
upon the  offer  being  rejected  and  certain  modifications  pro- 
posed by  that  Body  which  would  make  it  acceptable,  those 
modifications  were  transmitted  to  the  next  Legislature,  that 
of  1789,  for  its  consideration  and  action.     But  no   action 
whatever  did  it  take  in  regard  to   them.     There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  unworthy  course  pursued  by  the  Legislature 


66  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  1783  in  making  an  offer  that  was  obliged  to  be  rejected, 
and  the  equally  unworthy  conduct  of  the  Legislature  of 
1789,  in  not  considering  and  acceding  to  the  modifications 
proposed  by  Congress,  were  the  result  of  the  bad  inspiration 
and  influence  of  the  Yazoo  speculators  who,  as  yet,  stood 
cloaked  and  in  the  dark  as  a  secret  organization.  One  thing 
is  certain,  that  by  some  untold  means,  both  the  competition 
of  Congress  and  its  proposals  were  smothered  and  thrust  out 
of  the  way,  and  the  speculators  succeeded  in  getting  the 
field  clear  and  wholly  to  themselves,  free  from  all  competition. 
Of  the  advantages  they  thus  had  they  made  very  success- 
ful use  in  dealing  with  the  petty  diminutive  Legislature  of 
that  era,  numbering  only  eleven  Senators  and  thirty-four 
Representatives.  History  records  not,  that  they  had  any 
difficulty  in  outdoing  Congress  in  its  suit  for  the  lands,  and 
in  getting  for  themselves  the  first  Yazoo  sale,  that  of  1789, 
although  their  success  being  at  the  cost  of  gross  incivism  and 
supplanting  of  their  country,  brought  them  no  small  store 
of  dishonor,  and  added  new  ingredients  to  the  other 
elements  of  guilt  to  which  we  have  adverted  in  their  con- 
duct. 

By  that  piece  of  Legislation  the  State  sold  by  metes  and 
bounds  and  on  a  credit  of  two  years,  to  the  South  Carolina 
Yazoo  Company  lands  estimated  at  five  millions  of  acres,  for 
$66,964;  to  the  Virginia  YazoO  Company,  lands  estimated 
at  seven  millions  of  acres,  for  $93,741;  to  the  Tennessee 
Company,  lands  estimated  at  three  and  a  half  millions  of 
acres,  for  $46,785;  amounting  in  all  to  fifteen  and  a  half 
millions,  though  as  now  well  known  exceeding  that  quantity 
by  many  millions  of  acres.  All  these  lands,  (among  the 
best  arid  most  desirable  on  the  Continent)  lay  far  to  the 
West,  on  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Great  Tennessee, 
the  Tombigby,  and  their  tributaries,  and  had  always  been 
and  were  still  Indian  Teriitory  in  the  undisputed  possession 
of  several  powerful  and  by  no  means  very  friendly  Indian 
tribes,  to  whom  different  portions  of  it  belonged,  the  Creeks, 
Cherokees,  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws.  In  addition  to 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  67 

which  Indian  occupancy,  Spain  was  disputing  with  the 
United  States  the  title  to  the  whole  of  these  lands,  and 
vastly  more,  and  an  intense  territorial  quarrel  was  then 
pending  between  the  two  countries  as  to  the  ownership  and 
sovereignty  of  the  same. 

No  sooner,  nevertheless,  had  the  bargain  been  made  with 
the  Legislature  than  the  three  Companies  determined  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  selling  and  settling  the  lands  they  had 
respectively  bought,  regardless  of  Indian  rights  and  of  the 
effect  on  our  relations  and  negotiations  with  Spain.  To  this 
course  of  conduct  they  were  influenced  as  well  by  necessity 
as  by  choice.  For  except  by  immediate  sales,  they  had  no 
means  of  raising  money  wherewith  to  pay  Georgia  for  the 
lands  ;  which,  if  they  failed  to  do,  within  the  prescribed 
time  of  two  years,  the  lands  were  to  revert  at  once  to  the 
State,  and  their  whole  speculation  would  come  to  nothing. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Georgia  took  no  notice  at  all  of  these 
mischievous  possessory  movements  of  the  Yaxoo  Companies. 
The  sale  to  them  had  by  some  means,  long  sunk  into  obli- 
vion, glided  through  the  Legislature  in  silence,  at  least 
without  making  any  noise  or  meeting  with  any  opposition 
that  has  come  down  to  us  either  by  history  or  tradition. 
And  now  the  seizure  and  disposal  of  the  lands  by  the  pur- 
chasing companies  under  that  sale,  was  on  the  point  of 
taking  place  just  as  silently  and  with  quite  as  little  opposi- 
tion, so  far  at  least  as  the  State  was  concerned. 

Washington,  however,  was  on  the  alert  and  fully  awake  to 
the  case  and  to  the  lawless,  unconstitutional  and  dangerous 
character  of  all  these  doings  :  Lawless,  because  in  viola- 
tion of  the  aforementioned  well  settled  maxims  in  our  Indi- 
an policy :  Unconstitutional,  because  at  war  with  those 
wise  provisions  of  the  Federal  compact,  which  confided  the 
whole  subject  to  Federal  management :  Dangerous  also  in 
a  high  degree,  because  big  with  four  great  Indian  wars,  or 
rather  with  one  Indian  war  with  four  formidable  tribes  at  one 
time,  backed  by  Spain  to  boot :  Dangerous  again,  because 
seriously  embarrassing  and  imperiling  our  aforesaid  already 


68  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

critical  negotiations  with  Spain.  Against  the  whole  thing 
therefore  Washington  took  a  most  decided  stand.  He  issued 
his  proclamation  strongly  denouncing  and  forbidding  all 
intrusion  on  the  Indian  lauds  under  any  pretenses  or  claims 
whatever  by  the  Yazoo  purchasers,  or  any  other  persons. 
He  brought  the  military  as  well  as  the  civil  arm  to  bear  to 
defeat  the  contemplated  settlements,  and  happily  succeeded 
in  breaking  up  and  dissipating  the  whole  project  without 
tinging  the  drawn  sword  with  a  drop  of  blood.  The  result 
was  that  both  our  Indian  and  Spanish  relations  were  kept  in 
their  same  state  and  suffered  no  detriment. 

The  Companies,  thus  thwarted  in  seizing,  selling  and  set- 
tling the  Indian  lands  they  had  bought  for  less  than  a  cent 
an  acre,  were  at  their  wit's  end.  Their  two  years  credit 
was  rapidly  expiring,  and  they  knew  not  how  or  where  to 
get  the  money  to  pay  the  State.  Two  hundred  and  odd 
thousand  dollars  was  a  large  sum  to  raise  in  those  days  in 
coin  or  in  any  good  money.  They  could  uot  raise  it.  They 
were  consequently  driven  to  the  shift  of  gathering  up  and 
tendering  as  payment  the  nearly  worthless  paper  currency 
of  the  times,  which  being  rejected  and  the  issuance  of  titles 
refused,  they  sued  the  State  in  the  Federal  Court — which 
suits  were  soon  brought  to  an  abrupt  close  by  an  Amend- 
ment of  the  Federal  Constitution,  declaring  that  the 
Federal  Judiciary  had  no  jurisdiction  to  entertain  suits 
against  a  State. 

Thus  ended  the  first  Yazoo  Sale,  a  glaring  attempt  on  a 
large  scale  to  introduce  here  by  the  action  of  Georgia  and 
under  her  patronage,  the  vicious  Spanish- American  mode  of 
private  seizure  and  conquest  of  Indian  countries.  For  the 
Legislative  act  of  sale,  when  probed  to  the  bottom  and  scan- 
ned through  its  thin  translucent  pretenses,  amounted  to 
nothing  short  of  an  intentional  license  granted  for  a  price  to 
the  Companies  to  go  and  take  at  their  own  cost  and  charges, 
the  lands  they  had  bought.  It  even  affects  a  dishonorable 
uncertainty  of  their  being  any  Indians  "on  or  near"  those 
lands,  and  takes  the  hypocritical  precaution  of  providing 


Till'  Y A 7.00  FRAUD.  69 

that  if  there  should  be  any,  the  grantees  should  "forbear  all 
hostile  attacks  on  them"  (not,  be  it  noted,  all  intrusion  on 
their  territory)  which  the  grantees  would  be  very  apt  to  in- 
terpret in  their  own  favor  as  not  depriving  them  of  the  right 
of  repelling  Indian  attacks  on  their  peaceably  disposed  new 
settlements.  A  war  of  defense  against  the  Indians,  being 
thus  initiated,  might  of  course  be  kept  up  and  prosecuted, 
the  grantees  would  argue,  until  peace  and  security  were  per- 
fectly achieved,  that  is  to  say,  until  the  Indians  were  well 
subdued  and  their  lands  vested  in  the  conquerors. 

Such  was  too  much  the  logic  and  ethics  toward  the 
Indians  of  that  period  of  mingled  dread  and  exasperation  in 
Georgia.  But  even  if  it  had  been  otherwise,  and  the  prohib- 
itory words  in  the  Legislative  Act  had  been  meant  by  the 
State  in  the  largest  imaginable  good  faith  and  kind  sense 
towards  the  Indians  and  their  rights,  still  they  were  una- 
voidably mere  empty,  ineffective  words.  For  what  chance 
was  there  for  Georgia  to  make  good  her  prohibition  in  those 
remote  savage  wilds  over  which  she  had  never  extended  her 
Government,  where  she  had  not  a  man  at  her  command,  and 
where  besides  she  could  not  go  herself  in  any  garb,  civil  or 
military,  without  instantly  getting  an  Indian  war  upon  her 
hands  ?  For  hard  would  it  have  been  to  make  the  Indians 
believe  that  a  people  who  had  sold  their  country  to  bands  of 
speculators,  had  come  thither  astJieir  friends  to  protect  them 
against  those  speculators,  aud  not  as  their  enemies  and  the 
accomplices  of  their  robbers.  Thus  there  was  no  possibility 
whatever  of  the  State  enforcing  her  prohibition,  even  if  she 
had  meant  it  in  ever  so  good  faith.  And  as  a  right  without 
a  remedy  is  worthless,  so  this  prohibition  being  without 
means  or  ability  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  enforce  it,  was  a 
mere  mockery,  especially  when,  as  here,  an  open  door  and 
strong  temptation  was  offered  for  its  violation.  That  the 
Companies  regarded  the  matter  in  this  light  is  clear  enough 
from  the  fact  already  stated,  that  they  began  immediately 
taking  steps  for  seizing,  selling  and  settling  the  lands.  In- 
deed the  measures  of  two  of  them  for  this  purpose,  the  Ten- 


70  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

ne.ssee  and  South  Carolina  Yazoo,  enlisting  the  hardy 
pioneers  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  the  lower  Mississippi 
in  their  enterprise,  were  openly  military  and  warlike.  And 
the  fact  that  the  Government  of  Georgia  never  in  any  way 
forbade,  discountenanced  or  frowned  upon  their  proceedings, 
is  unanswerable  proof  that  those  proceedings  were  in  unison 
with  the  secret  spirit  and  intent  of  the  Yazoo  Sale,  though 
feebly  and  insincerely  disowned  by  its  letter.  The  State 
being  thus  worse  than  delinquent,  her  own  people  and  the 
whole  country  were  left,  as  we  have  seen,  to  be  indebted  to 
the  Federal  Executive  alone  for  the  thwarting  of  the  first 
Yazoo  iniquity  and  the  prevention  of  the  chaos  of  crime, 
mischief  and  misery  it  carried  in  its  bosom. 

SECTION  III. 

All  the  imputations  that  have  thus  been  seen  to  lie  at  the 
door  of  the  Yazoo  affair  of  1*789,  apply  more  strongly  and 
with  a  great  addition  of  guilt  to  the  much  worse  case  of 
January,  1795,  infamously  distinguished  as  the  Yazoo 
Fraud  proper,  and  to  which  we  are  now  coming — a  case 
rendered  worse  not  only  by  the  crime  being  of  more  collos- 
sal  proportions  and  accomplished  by  fouler  means,  but  also 
by  its  having  been  perpetrated  in  the  face  of  a  solemn  warn- 
ing against  it  furnished  by  the  history  and  fate  of  its  less 
monstrous  predecessor — perpetrated,  moreover,  in  defiance 
of  the  august  quarter  from  whence  that  warning  had  proceed- 
ed. But  notwithstanding  the  intenser  criminality  with 
which  this  later  Yazoo  affair  was  thus  chargeable,  it  had  a 
bright  side  in  one  respect  for  the  honor  of  Georgia.  It 
brought  out  the  strongest  possible  proof  that  her  people 
would  not  endure  turpitude  in  their  public  affairs.  No 
sooner  was  the  deed  of  shame  consummated  in  their  Legis- 
lature, than  they  rose  up  in  their  vengeance  against  both  the 
deed  and  its  doers,  nor  stayed  their  hand  till  the  wicked 
work  was  undone  and  the  character  of  the  State  vindicated. 
Assuredly,  in  the  annals  of  no  community,  can  be  found  a 
more  striking  and  redeeming  resentment  and  uprising  of 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  71 

the  people  against  a  great  political  wickedness  than  our  an- 
cestors exhibited  in  this  instance.  And  let  it  be  borne  in 
mind  that  it  was  an  uprising  not  less  against  the  iniquity  of 
the  thing  itself,  than  against  the  bad  means  by  which  it  was 
accomplished,  which  were  unknown  at  first  and  only 
brought  to  light  after  the  storm  began  to  rage.  Should  it 
be  asked  what  caused  the  conduct  of  Georgia  on  this  occa- 
sion to  be  so  different  from  what  it  had  been  in  the  similar 
case  of  1789, — the  clear  answer  is,  that  the  difference  was 
owing  to  the  effect  which  Washington's  stern  course  and 
true  teaching  in  1789  had  produced  on  the  minds  of  our 
people.  That  effect  had  been  to  correct  whatever  was  wrong 
in  their  earlier  ideas  on  the  subject,  and  to  awaken  and  edu- 
cate them  to  right  views  and  a  just  sense  of  their  duty  touch- 
ing it, — thereby  making  it  quite  impossible  that  any  such 
like  villainy  should  again  ever  prosper  in  their  midst  for 
want  of  opposition,  or  find  at  any  stage  the  slightest  toler- 
ation at  their  hands. 

The  consequence  was,  that  when  the  new  cohorts  of  spec- 
ulation rallied  and  took  the  fit-Id  in  1793,  full  of  confidence 
and  sanguine  of  being  able  to  seize  and  carry  off  the  prize 
that  had  by  that  time  fully  dropped  from  the  hands  of  the 
preceding  band  of  land-jobbers,  they  were  destined  to  a  sig- 
nal repulse.  The  Legislature  of  that  year  proved  itself 
staunch  and  altogether  impregnable  to  their  designs.* 

Of  course,  they  fretted  sorely  under  the  unexpected  dis- 
appointment, and  it  was  whilst  thus  fretting  ancf  occupied 
in  laying  their  plans  for  securing  a  better  result  whenever 
they  should  enter  upon  another  attempt,  that  they  were 
suddenly  bestirred  and  hurried  in  the  matter  by  certain  very 
important  confidential  intimations  from  the  National  Capi. 
tal.  These  came  from  General  James  Gunn,  who  was  not 
only  one  of  the  chiefs  of  their  enterprise,  but  was  also  their 
especial  watchman  and  spy  in  the  United  States  Senate  of 
which  he  was  an  unworthy  member  from  Georgia,  and  were 
to  the  effect  that,  through  his  opportunities  as  a  Senator,  he 

American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  1,  147.— Flournoy's   Affidavit. 


72  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

knew  beyond  doubt  that  our  territorial  negotiations  with 
Spain  were  drawing  to  a  close,  and  would  soon  end  by  her 
fully  surrendering  to  us  her  claims  to  all  the  so-called  Yazoo 
country, — indeed,  to  all  she  had  ever  claimed  against  us 
East  of  the  Mississippi :  That  therefore  there  was  no  time 
to  be  lost  by  the  associated  speculators,  and  that  it  was  in- 
dispensable that  their  scheme  of  purchase  should  be  pushed 
at  all  hazards,  and  by  all  expedients,  fair  or  foul,  through 
the  next  Legislature: — For  that  after  this  Spanish  cloud, 
that  had  for  more  than  a  dozen  years  overhung  and  darkened 
the  title  of  Georgia  and  given  a  handle  for  calumniating  and 
cheapening  her  immense  landed  wealth,  should  be  dissipated, 
as  it  now  soon  would  be,  all  prospect  would  be  gone  of  their 
ever  being  able  to  buy  these  immense  regions  from  her  for 
the  trifling  price  on  which  they  had  fixed  their  expecta- 
tions,— if,  indeed,  the  purchase  could.be  made  on  any  terms, 
— a  thing  exceedingly  doubtful,  considering  the  great  re- 
action of  opinion  as  to  the  value  of  the  lands  that  was  sure 
to  result  from  the  Spanish  riddance  that  was  now  immi- 
nent, combined  with  the  permanent  and  general  Indian 
pacification  which  would  be  its  certain  speedy  consequence. 

These  revelations  had  a  strong  effect  on  the  Yazooists,  not 
unlike  in  one  respect  that  produced  on  the  Rothschilds  by 
their  twenty-four  hours'  soonest  intelligence  from  the  fatal 
field  of  Waterloo,  in  June,  1815.  Activity  was  marvelous- 
ly  quickened  in  both  cases.  The  great  money-lenders  and 
money-controllers  of  the  world,  the  pecuniary  patrons  of 
kings  and  governments  and  ever  vigilant  speculators  on  the 
vastest  scale  in  their  debts  and  securities,  astounded  the 
London  Exchange  for  one  whole  day  by  the  magnitude  and 
multiplicity  of  their  operations,  to  which  none  could  find 
the  clue  till  the  next  morning.  So  not  until  the  treaty  of 
San  Lorenzo  was  concluded  in  October,  1795,  and  made 
known  to  the  country,  was  it  fully  understood  what  had  im- 
pelled the  Yazoo  companies  to  press  their  nefarious  project 
on  the  preceding  Legislature  with  such  desperate  energy, 
and  such  costly,  unstinted  corruption.  Then,  indeed,  the 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  73 

cause  stood  out  in  clear  light  and  became  obvious  to  every 
body-— it  being  plainly  soon  what  great  and  just  reason  they 
had  for  fearing  that  the  last  chance  was  in  hand  they  were 
likely  ever  to  have  for  cheaply  getting  hold  of  the  priceless 
landed  empire  on  which  they  were  villainously  intent,  and 
which,  whilst  they  saw  the  General  Government  on  the 
point  of  freeing  from  its  Spanish  entanglement,  they  also 
saw  it,  at  the  same  time,  still  suing  for  to  Georgia  on  behalf 
of  that  noble  national  object, — the  payment  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary* Debt. 

Of  the  pestilent  territorial  claims  of  Spain  that  gave  rise 
to  this  entanglement  and  which  have  so  often  started  Up  in 
our  path,  complicated,  first,  with  our  Indian  Affairs  and 
the  Oconee  war,  as  we  have  heretofore  shown  at  length,  and 
then,  also,  with  that  monstrous  Yazoo  iniquity  which  we  are 
now  handling,  furnishing  to  the  banded  speculators  a  reason 
of  their  own  for  being  in  such  eager  hurry  to  buy  up  the 
State's  Western  lands,  and  giving  them  at  the  same  time  a 
cherished  pretext  for  decrying  their  title  and  value,  it 
will  be  well  here  to  take  a  rapid,  comprehensive  review, 
alth  >ugh  at  the  cost  of  being  carried  far  back  into  Revolu- 
tionary and  pre-Revolutionary  times.  For  such  a  review 
ample  apology,  it  strikes  me,  will  be  found  in  its  general 
affinity  to  the  early  history  of  Georgia  as  well  as  in  the 
light  it  is  calculated  to  shed  on  the  Yazoo  Fraud. 

RETROSPECT  OF  THE  SPANISH  TITLE. 

North  America  was  long  an  arena  of  strife  for  dominion 
between  France,  Spain  and  England.  France  having  at  an 
early  day  seized  upon  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  based 
thereupon  a  claim  not  only  to  the  frozen  realms  adjacent 
and  the  immense  icy  regions  further  North,  but  also  to  those 
more  genial  climes  spreading  out  behind  the  mountains  from 
the  margins  of  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  heads  of  the  tributa- 
ries of  the  Mississippi ;  along  which  great  river  shu  planted 
also  that  grandest  of  her  colonies,  Louisiana,  under  whose 
shadow  she  asserted  herself  sole  sovereign  of  the  mighty 


74  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

stream  and  all  its  sequacious  waters  and  almost  boundless 
dependant  lands  from  its  mouth  to  its  source  on  both  sides. 
Spain  had  posted  herself  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  the 
waters  of  the  Mobile  to  the  Southern  Atlantic,  and  from 
thence  shot  up  her  claims  perpendicularly  and  indefinitely 
to  the  North,  interpenetrating  those  of  France  and  Eng- 
land. The  latter  power  stood  thrust  as  it  were  between  the 
two  others,  occupying  the  entire  Ocean  front  from  the 
Oanadas  to  Florida.  But  westwavdly  she  paid  no  respect  at 
all  to  the  exorbitant  claims  of  her  neighbors,  coolly  ignoring 
and  overriding  them  with  still  more  exorbitant  claims  of 
her  own.  Quite  regardless  of  their  airy  conflicting  preten- 
sions, she  boldly  projected  the  long  lines  of  colony  after 
colony,  among  the  rest  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
across  the  Continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  South  Sea,  as 
the  Pacific  was  then  called. 

This  state  of  things  was  almost  obliged  to  result  sooner  or 
later  in  war.  For  how  else  could  these  omniverous  compe- 
titors for  the  mastery  of  the  new  world  be  quieted  among 
themselves  and  have  their  litigious  limits  adjusted?  It 
came  at  length,  a  tripartite  struggle  between  the  three  Pow- 
ers, memorable  for  its  great  territorial  consequences,  for  the 
mournful  defeat  and  fall  of  the  proud  Braddock  in  the 
depths  of  an  Indian  wilderness,  and  for  its  sadly  glorious 
crowning  scene — Wolfe's  heroic  death  clasped  in  the  arms 
of  victory  on  the  heights  of  Abraham.  It  was  a  great  seven 
years  war  and  gradually,  after  our  own  more  famed  war  of 
the  Revolution,  came  to  be  called  by  our  ancestors  the  old 
French  war.  It  lasted  till  1763,  when  it  was  brought  to  a 
close  by  the  treaty  of  Paris,  concluded  in  February  of  that 
year.  That  treaty  was  France's  death  blow  in  North 
America.  By  it  she  lost  to  England  the  Canadas  and  the 
whole  North,  and  also  all  of  Lousiana  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Mississippi  down  to  the  3 1st  parallel  of  latitude.  To 
Spain  she  lost  all  the  rest  of  Louisiana  on  both  sides  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  was  thus  literally  expelled  from  the  Conti- 
nent. Then  England  yielded  up  in  favor  of  Spain  all  her 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  75 

Trans-Mississippi  pretensions  and  accepted  that  river  as  her 
western  boundary  ;  and  Spain  on  her  part  transferred  to 
England,  Florida,  embracing  under  that  name  all  that  she 
hud  previously  to  the  war  claimed  East  of  the  Mississippi. 

And  now  we  <;orne  to  divers  facts  important  in  the  terri- 
torial controversy  that  subsequently  arose  between  the 
United  States  and  Spain  and  having,  through  that  contro- 
versy a  bearing. on  the  Yazoo  Fraud.  Among  which  facts  it 
is  first  to  be  rioted  that  under  the  Spanish  rule,  all  Florida 
had  been  but  one  Province  with  large  limits  stretching  up 
towards  the  North  indefinitely,  as  has  just  been  observed, 
and  adverse  both  to  England  and  France.  Great  Britain, 
upon  Florida  becoming  hers,  changed  this  thing.  She  divid- 
ed the  one  province  into  two,  East  and  West  Florida,  and 
fixed  their  northern  boundary.  That  of  East  Florida  she 
made  to  begin  at  the  junction  of  the  Flint  and  Chattahoo- 
chee,  running  from  thence  to  the  head  of  the  St.  Mary's,  and 
following  the  course  of  that  river  to  the  sea.  That  of  West 
Florida,  with  which  alone  we  are  now  concerned,  she  made 
to  begin  on  the  Chattahooch.ee  river  where  the  3 1st  parallel  of 
latitude  strikes  it,  and  to  follow  that  parallel  to  the  Missis" 
sippi. 

Had  Great  Britain  allowed  this  line  to  remain  unaltered, 
had  she  thought  proper,  during  her  brief  domination,  to  let 
alone  this,  her  first  fixation  of  the  Northern  boundary  of 
West  Florida,  very  different  from  what  actually  took  place 
would  have  been  many  subsequent  circumstances  and  events 
in  relation  to  a  vast  and  interesting  region.  In  the  first 
place,  had  this  line  of  the  thirty-first  parallel  remained  un- 
disturbed, that  Spanish  claim  of  title  afterwards  so  earnest- 
ly urged  against  the  United  States  for  all  the  country  be- 
tween the  Chattahoochee  and  the  Mississippi  lying  above 
that  parallel,  would  have  lacked  its  only  plausible  founda- 
tion, and  in  all  likelihood  would  never  have  been  brought 
forward.  Consequently,  that  Spanish  Protectorate  of  the  In- 
dians and  interference  with  them  against  us,  which  origina- 
ted wholly  out  of  this  claim  of  title,  would  never  have 


76  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

occurred.  It  is  altogether  probable  likewise  that  the  Yazoo 
Fraud  itself  might  never  have  been  .hatched,  and  in  case  it 
had  been,  it  is  almost  certain  it  would  have  failed  of  success- 
ful accomplish  meet.  For  the  litigious  state  of  the  title 
between  our  country  and  Spain  was  the  main  root  from 
which,  it  sprang,  inspiring,  as  we  have  seen,  a  hope  of 
achieving  the  vast  purchase,  or  champerty  r«ther,  at  very 
little  cost.  How  adroitly  the  Yazooists  intermingled  insinu- 
ations against  the  title  of  Georgia  with  the  arts  of  bribery, 
corruption  and  influence  with  which  they  prosecuted  their 
purchase  before  the  Legislature,  needs  not  to  be  told  in  de- 
tail here.  Verily,  it  required  the  combined  force  of  these 
and  all  other  base  means  they  could  command,  to  effect  the 
passage  of  their  monstrous  scheme. — And  then,  further- 
more, had  Grt'at  Britain  never  changed  this  line,  the  very 
word  Yazoo  would  have  remained  in  its  original  obscurity, 
nor  would  ever  have  been  raised  into  notoriety,  nor  fastened 
as  a  name  on  a  large  and  interesting  portion  of  the  earth's 
surface. 

But  Great  Britain,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  was  led, 
by  reasons  not  now  worth  enumerating,  to  make  a  great 
change  of  the  line  as  at  first  established  by  her, — a  change 
destined  to  be  prolific  of  no  little  strife  between  her  two 
conquering  successors,  Spain  and  the  United  States.  Car- 
rying the  Northern  boundary  of  West  Blorida  much  further 
up,  she  made  it  to  start  from  the  Mississippi  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Yazoo  and  to  run  from  thence  due  East  to  the  Chat- 
tahoochee,  striking  the  latter  river  not  far  from  what  is  now 
West  Point.  Naturally,  this  line  soon  became  famous  as 
the  new  upper  boundary  of  British  West  Florida,  and  it  got 
to  be  familiarly  known  as  the  Yazoo  line,  and  the  country 
above  and  below  it  to  an  indefinite  extent  came  to  be  called 
the  Yazoo  country.  Wherefore,  upon  the  subsequent  recon- 
quest  of  British  West  Florida  by  Spain,  which  took  place  in 
May,  1781,  it  is  not  strange  that  Spain  should  have  claimed, 
as  she  did,  to  have  become  the  owner,  by  virtue  of  that  con- 
quest, of  all  the  country  bearing  the  nanio  of  British  West 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  77 

Florida,  that  is,  of  all  South  of  the  Yazoo.  line,  But  not 
content  with  this,  she  went  much  further,  and  without  either 
logic  or  justice  on  her  side,  extended  her  pretensions  to  all 
the  territory  on  the  North  of  the  line  to  which  the  vague 
name  of  Florida  had  of  old  been  applied  hy  her,  asserting 
that  she  was  remitted  to  her  ancient  claims  there  also  by 
her  reconquest  of  West  Florida,  although  British  West 
Florida  did  not  reach  so  far  up.  From  the  foregoing  it  is 
seen  how  it  happened  that  the  vast  region  of  which  we  are 
discoursing  acquired  the  name  of  Yazoo,  and  why  in  the 
first  legislative  sale,  that  of  1789,  the  two  main  purchasing 
companies  took  Yazoo  (the  word  not  having  yet  becyme  ob- 
noxious) as  part  of  their  name  and  were  called  the  Virginia 
Yazoo  and  the  South  Carolina  Yazoo  Companies.  Hence, 
also,  in  the  act  of  1795,  although  all  four  of  its  companies 
eschewed  the  now  tainted  name  and  it  was  not  allowed  to 
occur  in  the  law  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  yet  it  con- 
tinued to  stick  like  the  shirt  of  Nessus,  and  neither  the  lands, 
the  law,  the  companies,  the  enacting  Legislature;  nor  any- 
thing else  connected  with  the  transaction  have  ever  been 
able  to  this  day  to  get  rid  of  the  abhorred  designation. 

It  was  more  than  a  dozen  years  after  the  establishment,  of 
this  Yazoo  line  by  Great  Britain  that  the  important  event 
occurred  to  which  we  have  just  above  adverted,  namely, 
the  Spanish  reconquest  of  West  Florida  from  that  power  in 
May,  1781,  a  date  at  which  our  Revolutionary  war  was  yet 
in  "  mid  volley," — eighteen  months  before  the  provisional, 
and  more  than  two  years  before  the  definitive  treaty  of 
Peace,  Limits  and  Independence  between  the  mother  coun- 
try and  the  United  States.  This  reconquest  was  a  long 
premeditated  thing  with  Spain.  All  the  while  after  the 
treaty  of  Paris,  she  had  been  ill  at  ease  under  the  loss  of 
Florida,  for  which  she  had  never  felt  that  Great  Britain's 
relinquishment  of  her  shadowy  claims  West  of  the  Missis- 
sippi deserved  to  b(?  called  an  indemnity,  or  was  anything 
more  than  a  mere  empty  salvo  to  Spanish  pride.  She  had 
been  constantly  on  the  watch,  therefore,  for  an  opportunity 


78  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  revenge  and  reseizure,  and  found  it  at  last,  so  far  as  West 
Florida  was  concerned,  by  leaping  on  Great  Britain  while 
she  was  oppressed  by  a  tripple  war  with  her  rebellious  colo- 
nies, and  their  French  allies  and  theunallied  Dutch.  Never 
was  conquest  more  complete  and  unequivocal,  the  British 
Governor,  Chester,  making  an  absolute  surrender  of  the 
province  and  retiring  with  the  British  Forces  and  function- 
aries, and  leaving  everything  in  the  hands  of  the  victorious 
Spaniards.  Nor  was  there  ever  any  attempt  at  recapture. 

The  effect  was  that,  as  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain, 
all  British  West  Florida  from  the  Gulf  up  to  the  Yazoo  line 
became  undoubtedly  Spanish,  nor  was  there  aught  left  to 
England  within  that  space  capable  of  being  conveyed  by  her 
in  any  way  to  the  United  States  or  any  other  power. 

And  yet  what  in  fact  did  England  do?  Here  is  what  she 
did  :  By  both  the  aforementioned  treaties,  provisional  and 
definitive,  she  ceded  the  whole  country,  as  well  below  as 
above  the  Yazoo  line,  to  the  United  States  down  to  the  31st 
parallel,  wholly  disregarding  the  aforesaid  Spanish  recon- 
quest.  And  what  is  stranger  still,  she  did  on  the  very  day 
she  made  this  definitive  cession  to  the  United  States,  to-wit, 
on  the  3d  day  of  September,  1783,  enter  into  a  conflicting 
treaty  with  Spain  conveying  in  full  right  to  her  East 
and  West  Florida,  without  saying  one  word  about  their 
boundaries,  leaving  Spain  consequently  at  liberty  and  in  a 
r  osition  to  contend  for  whatever  boundaries  she  pleased 
against  us. 

Behold  here  what  a  wanton  bequest  of  territorial  dispute 
and  quarrel  our  chagrined  and  vanquished  Mother  country 
threw  at  parting  into  the  laps  of  the  United  States  and 
Spain.: — A  bequest,  too,  which,  so  far  as  related  to  the  re- 
gion South  of  the  Yazoo  line,  seemed  at  first  glance  decid- 
edly to  throw  the  advantage  on  the  side  of  Spain  and  against 
this  country.  But  it  was  only  at  the  first  glance  that  it  had 
that  seeming.  For  upon  close  scrutiny  it  became  clear  that 
the  United  States  were  entitled  to  go  behind  these  con- 
flicting treaties  into  which  Britian  had  entered  with  Spain 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  79 

and  ourselves,  and  to  treat  the  one  made  with  us  as  being 
not  so  much  a  cession  or  the  source  of  our  tide  as  an  acknowl- 
edgement by  the  mother  country  of  our  pre-existing  rights 
and  boundaries  acquired,  sword  in  hand,  by  successful  war 
and  our  Declaration  of  Independence.  By  this  mode  of 
viewing  the  subject  (and  it  is  certainly  the  true  one),  our 
territorial  rights  and  limits  recognized  by  the  treaty  of  1783 
are  made  to  relate  back  and  take  effect  from  a  date  anterior 
to  the  Spanish  conquest  of  1781,  and  to  be  superior  conse- 
quently to  the  Spanish  claim  founded  on  that  cjnquest,  just 
as  our  Independence  itself  is  to  be  regarded  not  as  a  grant  or 
concession  from  Great  I5ri tain,  but  as  a  right  acknowledged  by 
her  to  be  already  ours,  conquered  by  war  and  dating  back 
to  the  4 tli  of  July  1776.  We  see  thus  that  revolution  and 
the  sword  are  the  true  fountain  head  from  which  we  trace  in 
this  case  our  territorial  title  and  boundaries  as  well  as  our 
blood-purchased  right  of  self-government: — Of  both  which 
the  above  mentioned  British  treaties  with  us  are  to  be  con- 
sidered but  as  a  recognition  and  settlement. 

Such  is  the  principle,  not  the  less  sound  because  a  little 
subtle,  which  comes  to  our  rescue,  supplanting  in  our  favor 
the  Spanish  claim  of  title  to  all  that  part  of  the  contested 
territory  lying  South  of  the  Yazoo  line.  It  is  not  surprising, 
however,  that  Spain  should  have  been  exceedingly  averse  to 
yielding  up  so  fine  and  large  a  region  on  so  fine  a  point  as 
this.  But  when  she  went  further,  and  upon  the  ground  c£ 
having  conquered  British  West  Florida,  overstepped  the 
Yazoo  line  and  advanced  pretensions  to  an  immense  country 
which  had  never  been  embraced  in  that  province,  no  wonder 
the  American  Continent  grew  impatient  and  almost  lost 
respect  for  a  power  that  juggled  in  this  manner  for  more 
than  it  could  with  decency  claim. 

Thus,  upon  comparison  of  the  two  titles,  Spanish  and 
Georgian,  as  they  stood  previously  to  the  treaty  of  San 
Lorenzo,  that  of  Georgia  on  which  alone  the  United  States 
relied  and  triumphed  in  their  negotiations  with  Spain,  is 
found  to  be  prior  in  time  and  consequently  stronger  in  point 


80  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  right  (prior  tempore,  ergo  portior  jure,)  than  the  Spanish 
title  ;  hoth  heing  founded  on  conquest  from  Great  Britain 
and  our  conquest  heing  the  oldest  of  the  two  by  nearly  five 
years.'  But  even  supposing 4he  title  of  Spain,  though  van- 
quished in  her  diplomatic  strife  with  our  country,  to  have 
been  in  reality  better  than  that  of  Georgia  by  means  of 
which  the  United  States  vanquished  it,  yet  the  United  States 
would  be  precluded  after  the.  victory  from  assuming  an  altered 
language  and  denying  the  superiority  and  validity  of  the  title 
of  Georgia  under  which  that  victory  had  been  won.  -For 
Governments  no  more  than  individuals,  after  conquering 
under  a  flag,  whether  of  war  or  of  words,  have  a  right  to 
turn  upon  it  and  rend  it.  The  wise  arid  beneficent  princi- 
ple of  estoppel  so  well  known  in  law  and  so  sacred  to  peace, 
honor  and  the  repose  of  rights  and  property,  here  comes  into 
play,  and  not  only  forbade  the  United  States  from  setting 
up  the  vanquished  Spanish  title  in  opposition  to  that  of 
Georgia,  but  furthermore  required  that  this  vanquished 
title  should  not  be  allowed  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States 
to  have  the  effect  of  vesting  any  right  whatever,  against 
Georgia,  but  should  be  made  to  enure,  for  whatever  it 
might  be  worth,  to  her  benefit  alone,  and  to  the  perfect  clear- 
ing and  firm  establishment  of  her  right  and  title. 

SECTION  IV. 

Fuch  is  a  condensed  account  of  the  Spanish  title  and  of  its 
eventual  surrender  to  the  United  States  who  were  contest- 
ants against  it  under  the  elder  and  better  title  of  Georgia. 
The  leagued  speculators  forewarned  by  Gen.  Gunn,  knew, 
as  we  have  seen,  as  early  as  1794,  how  certain  and  near  at 
hand  this  surrender  was,  and  by  the  many  able  and  distin- 
guished men  whom  they  counted  in  their  ranks,  (among 
whom  were  prominent  politicians,  eminent  jurists  and  learn- 
ed judges  ;)  they  were  all  the  while  kept  well  enlightened 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  this  surrender  whenever  it  should 
happen,  would  work  ;  that  it  would  enure,  as  we  have  above 
stated,  to  the  benefit  of  Georgia  and  to  the  disembarrass- 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  81 

merit  of  her  right  in  and  to  the  immense  territory  they  were 
seeking  to  purchase  from  her.  But  whilst  their  confidence 
in  the  clear  title  of  what  they  were  aiming  to  buy  from 
Georgia  was  thus  perfect  and  free  from  doubt,  they  dread- 
ed not  a  little  the  enhanced  estimation  of  the  lands  and 
other  difficulties  which  they  foresaw  rising  up  in  their  path 
in  case  they  should  fail  to  consummate  their  purchase  in 
advance  of  the  coming  Spanish  cession.  Among  those  other 
difficulties  was  the  ever  haunting  danger  from  the  patriotic 
competition  of  the  United  States  government.  For  though 
they  had  succeeded  in  triumphing  over  it  in  1 789,  they  saw  it 
again  starting  up  and  all  the  while  threatening  them.  To 
which  when  we  add  the  vast  unprincipled  cupidity  by  which 
they  were  devoured  and  the  mania  then  widely  prevalent 
for  speculating  in  wild  lands,  we  behold  the  reasons  which 
stimulated  the  Yazooists  to  the  hurried  and  profligate  efforts 
of  which  they  were  now  guilty  in  order  to  grasp,  while  they 
might,  an  enormous  prize  which  they  apprehended  would 
not  remain  long  within  their  reach. 

These  efforts  they  consequently  commenced  making  very 
soon,  not  waiting  even  for  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature. 
For  months  beforehand,  the  ringleaders  •  and  their  most 
wily,  trusted  accomplices  were  hard  at  work  to  secure  suc- 
cess from  that  body  when  it  should  assemble.  They  kept? 
however,  a  thick  veil  over  their  machinations.  It  was  quite 
unknown  to  the  public  how  they  were  busied.  Little  was 
it  supposed  that  they  were  industriously  occupied  in  per- 
fecting their  schemes,  in  tampering  with  the  elections  to  the 
Legislature,  in  enlisting  men  of  influence  far  and  wide,  and 
in  getting  up  funds  for  the  purpose  of  corruption  and  paying 
for  the  lands.  Even  upon  the  assembling  of  the  Legislature 
in  November,  no  siege  was  at  first  laid  ;"  no  lobby  showed 
itself;  no  demonstration  of  any  sort  was  for  sometime  made. 
Every  thing  was  kept  still,  quiet,  unsuspected,  awaiting  a 
very  significant,  pre-arranged,  auxiliary  event,  namely,  the 
re-election  of  Gen.  Gunn  for  another  six  years  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  which  was  no  sooner  accomplished  than  it 


82  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

was  hailed  everywhere  by  his  associates  as  a  great  prelimi- 
nary triumph,  and  an  auspicious  prelude  to  the  grand  Yazoo 
campaign,  which  was  now  at  once  boldly  opened  at  Augusta 
under  the  leadership  of  Gunn  himself,  robed  in  all  the 
bravery  of  his  renewed  Senatorial  dignity — A  dignity  basely 
sought  by  him  on  this  occasion  with  the  direct  intention  of 
prostituting  its  great  influence  to  the  shame  and  betrayal  of 
the  people  who  honored  him,  and  to  the  vile  enrichment  of 
himself  and  his  confederates,  who  had  not  over  estimated 
the  importance  of  his  election  to  their  cause,  rightly  judg- 
ing that  a  Legislature  which  should  re-elect  such  a  man  to 
so  noble  a  station  would  not  be  found  proof  against  the  aug- 
mented bad  influence  with  which  they  had  thereby  armed 
him,  nor  be  beyond  the  reach  of  those  arts  of  corruption  that 
were  pre-determined  to  be  exerted  by  himself  and  his  co- 
workers,  who  took  it  for  granted  from  their  failure  at  the 
preceding  session  that  such  arts  would  have  to  be  employed 
in  order  to  success  now.* 

Quickly  then  upon  Gutm's  re-election  the  veil  was  entire- 
ly thrown  off  by  the  Yazooists  and  four  great  land  compa- 
nies developed  themselves  that  had  evidently  been  already 
organized  and  in  waiting  for  that  signal.  These  companies 
soon  perceived  that  in  playing  the  part  of  competitors 
against  one  another  they  would  be  greatly  in  each  other's 

•Extract  from  Mr.  Randolph's  speech  on  the  Yazoo  claims  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States,  January  31st,  1805 :  "There  is  another 
fact,  too  little  known,  but  unquestionably  true,  in  relation  to  this  business. 
The  scheme  of  buying  up  the  Western  territory  of  Georgia  did  not  originate 
there.  It  was  hatched  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York  (and  I  believe  in  Boston, 
of  this,  however,  lam  not  certain),  and  the  funds  by  which  it  was  effected  were 
principally  furnished  by  monied  capitalists  in  those  towns.  The  direction  of 
these  resources  devolved  chiefly  on  the  Senator  (Gunn),  who  has  been  mention- 
ed. Too  wary  to  commit  himself  to  writing,  he  and  his  associates  agreed  upon 
a  countersign.  His  re-election  was  to  be  considered  as  evidsnce  that  the  tem- 
per of  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  was  suited  to  their  purpose  and  his  Northern 
confederates  were  to  take  their  measures  accordingly.  In  proof  of  this  fact, 
no  sooner  was  the  news  of  his  re-appoiniment  announced  in  New  York  than  it 
was  publicly  said  in  a  coffee  house  there,  "Then  the  Western,  territory  of 
Georgia  is  sold.''— Benton  M.  of  Congressional  Debates,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  331. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  83 

way  and  that  by  combining  their  resources  and  influence  they 
would  almost  certainly  be  able  to  control  the  Legislature  to 
their  purposes.  They  hastened  accordingly  to  enter  into  a 
cocilition,  the  parties  to  which,  more  grasping  than  their 
predecessors  of  1789,  resolved  on  seizing  and  partitioning 
among  themselves  all  the  immense  country  from  the  Ala- 
abama  arid  Coosa  in  the  East  and  the  Mississippi  in  the 
West,  and  from  the  Northern  boundary  of  Georgia  along 
the  35th  parallel  down  nearly  to  her  Southern  limit  on  the 
31st  degree  of  latitude — a  region  of  surpassing  natural  ad- 
vantages and  comprising  some  forty  or  fifty  millions  of  acres 
of  what  was  mostly  very  fertile  land  in  a  very  fine  climate, 
every  where  well  watered  and  abounding  in  good  navigable 
rivers. 

Over  the  proposals  and  efforts  of  the  combined  speculators 
to  buy  this  almost  imperial  expanse  the  State's  unworthy 
representatives  higgled  and  hesitated  for  some  time,  not,  as 
the  upshot  showed,  in  order  to  obtain  a  better  price  for  the 
State,  but  with  a  view  only  to  bigger  bribes  for  themselves. 
At  length,  paid  to  their  own  full  satisfaction  for  their  votes, 
they  sold  the  whole  coveted  region  at  one  "fell  swoop"  of 
legislation  for  the  sum  of  $500,000  to  the  four  leagued  com- 
panies, the  purchase  money  being  apportioned  among  them 
as  also  were  the  lands,  according  to  their  own  wishes  and 
dictation  ;  the  State  getting  one-fifth  of  the  money  in  hand 
and  receiving  mortgages  on  the  lands  themselves  for  the 
remainder,  which  was  fully  paid  before  the  expiration  of  a 
stipulated  credit  of  ten  months.  The  Georgia  Company  was 
the  leviathan  of  the  coalition,  paying  just  one-half  of  the 
gross  amount  of  the  purchase  money,  $250,000,  the  Georgia- 
Mississippi  Company  paying  $155,000,  the  Upper  Mississip- 
pi Company,  $35,000,  and  the  Tennessee  Company,  $60,000, 
each  getting  by  metes  and  bounds  lands  proportioned  to 
their  respective  payments. 

In  this  gigantic  transaction  we  behold  shamelessness  and 
audacity,  falsity  and  artifise  vying  with  the  pecuniary  cor- 
ruption by  which  it  was  disgraced.  For  instance,  the  Leg- 


84  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

islature  had  the  hardihood,  as  we  are  informed  in  the  pre- 
amble to  the  Rescinding  Act,  to  accept  this  price  of  $500,000 
in  the  face  of  a  proposition  by  other  parties  equally  reliable 
to  pay  $800,000,  which  was  refused  for  no  better  reason  than 
the  smaller  bribes,  or  perhaps  the  no  bribes,  by  which  it  was 
backed.  How  grateful  the  bare  idea  that  the  failure  of  thet=e 
higher  bidders  was  owing  to  their  virtue  !  Moreover,  also, 
during  the  time  the  measure  was  on  hand  the  speculators  gross- 
ly misrepresented  the  amount  of  the  lands  they  were  seeking 
to  buy,  pretending  that  they  amounted  to  not  more  than 
21,000,000  or  22,000,000  of  acres.*  After  the  bargain  was 
clinched  they  quickly  made  the  discovery  that  they  had  got- 
ten at  least  40,000,000  acres.  And  then  the  pretense  set  up 
in  the  Act  of  a  necessity  to  sell  these  lands  in  order  to  raise 
funds  to  pay  the  State  troops  and  to  extinguish  the  Indian 
title  to  lands  lying  elsewhere,  is  transparently  false  and  hyp- 
ocritical on  the  very  face  of  the  law.  Further  still,  among 
the  numerous  badges  of  fraud  and  villainy  by  which  the  case 
is  deformed,  not  the  least  remarkable  is  that  tliese  great  ter- 
ritories were  clandestinely  sold,  as  it  were,  by  the  Legisla- 
ture without  any  notice  whatever  having  been  given  to  the 
public  that  they  were  for  sale. 

*ln  the  debate  on  the  Yazoo  Claims  in  January,  1805,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, Mr.  Lucas,  of  Virginia,  said  : 

"It  ought  to  be  observed  that  the  four  land  companies,  who  are  original 
purchasers  under  the  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  passed  on  the  7th  of 
January,  1795,  stated  in  their  petition  containing  their  proposal  to  the  Legisla- 
ture to  purchase  certain  lands  belonging  to  the  State  of  Georgia,  that  the  lands 
contained  within  the  bounds  which  were  described  in  their  petition  amounted 
to  21,750,000  acres  It  was  evidently  upon  the  fai'h  of  this  statement  that  the 
Legislature  consented  to  sell  that  land  for  $500,000.  However,  it  is  now  as- 
certained that  the  quantity  of  land  thus  described  amounts  to  35,000.000  acres 
and  the  companies  themselves  compute  it  to  be  near  40,000,000.  From  this 
it  appears  evidently  that  the  companies  have  deceived  the  Legislature  by  stating 
what  was  not  true.  *  *  *  *  « 

"The  Legislature  have  consequently  sold  twice  as  much  land  as  they  intended 
to  sell,  or  which  is  the  same  thing,  they  have  sold  it  one-half  cheaper  than  it 
was  their  intention,  and  all  this  loss  is  the  result  of  the  false  statement  given 
by  the  land  companies.'' — BentoiCs  jib.  of  Congressional  Debates,  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  323. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  85 

Bul  in  order  to  see  this  Yazoo  affair  in  its  full  turpitude, 
it  is  necessary  to  advert  to  another  law  enacted  at  the  same 
session.  I  mean  the  Act  passed  for  the  purpose  of  making 
provision  for  paying  with  Indian  lands  the  State  Troops  for 
their  services  in  defending  the  State  in  the  Indian  war 
which  had  been  so  long  pending  and  which,  indeed,  was  not 
yet  perfectly  terminated.  This  law  authorizes  Surveys  and 
Head  Rights  in  favor  of  the  citizen  soldiers  to  be  located  on 
lands  yet  in  the  occupancy  of  Indians  lying  in  the  Tallassee 
country  and  to  the  South  of  the  Oconee.  Such  and  so 
thorough,  however,  was  the  change  of  ideas  that  had  been 
wrought  among  the  people  of  Georgia  by  the  policy  and 
principles  of  Washington  as  displayed  and  enforced  in  his 
warfare  against  the  Yazoo  sale  of  1789,  that  whatever  they 
may  have  previously  thought  on  the  subject,  they  now  cer- 
tainly disclaimed  all  right  of  entering  themselves  or  of 
authorizing  by  their  laws  and  grants,  others  to  enter  on  the 
Indian  lands  within  the  limits  of  the  State  until  the  Indian 
title  should  be  first  extinguished  and  the  consent  of  the 
general  Government  given.  Accordingly  in  this  State  Troops 
Act,  care  was  taken  to  insert  a  clause  declaring  that  the  Act 
was  not  to  go  into  operation  until  after  the  extinction  of  the 
Indian  title,  and  in  regard  to  the  Tallassee  country,  not 
until  after  obtaining  the  consent  of  the  General  Government. 
Such  were  the  restrictions  the  Legislature  felt  bound  to  put 
into  a  Law  appropriating  Indian  lands  for  so  favorite  an 
object  as  that  of  compensating  our  citizen  soldiers. 

But  when  it  came  to  the  Yazoo  Law  and  the  selling  of  a 
realm  of  Indian  territory  to  gangs  of  profligate  specula- 
tors for  almost  nothing  in  comparison  with  its  value,  a 
mighty  change  comes  over  the  Legislature.  It  now  no 
longer  gave  heed  to  the  principles  and  policy  of  Washing- 
ton. There  is  now  no  waiting  for  the  extinguishment  of 
the  Indian  title,  or  the  consent  of  the  General  Government ; 
no  postponement  of  the  operation  of  the  Law  for  these  or 
any  other  events.  On  the  contrary  the  sale  is  absolute,  im- 
mediate, unconditional,  trammeled  with  no  delays,  con  tin- 


86  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

gencies  or  restrictions.  In  a  word  the  restrictions  studious- 
ly inserted  in  the  State  Troops  law  are  as  studiously  left 
out  here,  and  the  door  is  intentionally  left  open  for  the 
State's  bribhig  grantees  and  whoever  might  become  their  sub- 
purchasers  to  possess  themselves,  so  far  as  the  terms  of  the 
Law  are  concerned,  of  the  Indian  lands  at  their  own  pleas- 
ure and  by  their  own  arts  and  means.  Arid  in  order  to  add 
strength  to  such  their  claim  under  the  law  and  place  it  be- 
yond cavil,  recourse  is  had  to  an  extraordinary  and  most 
discreditable  Legislature  trick — A  lying  Title  is  prefixed  to 
the  Law.  It  is  falsely  christened  an  "Act  supplementary" 
to  the  State  Troops  Act.  Thus,  by  forging  the  relation  of 
principal  and  supplement  between  the  two  laws  and  thereby 
making  them  for  all  purposes  of  judicial  interpretation  one 
and  the  same  law,  the  construction  was  the  more  strongly 
necessitated  that  the  insertion  of  the  restrictions  in  the  State 
Troops  Law  and  their  omission  in  the  Yazoo  Law  was  tanta- 
mount to  their  express  exclusion  from  the  latter,  accord- 
ing to  the  universally  recognized  legal  maxim,  Inculsio 
uniiJLS  est  exclusio  elterius.  Behold  here  bv  what  unwor- 
thy parliamentary  legerdemain  the  Yazooists  contrived  to 
strengthen  the  argument  of  their  exemption  from  restrictions 
demanded  at  once  by  righteousnesss  and  good  policy  and  by 
the  laws  and  constitution  and  treaties  of  the  Union ;  restric- 
tions also  to  which  our  meritorious  citizen  soldiers  were 
subjected  by  the  very  same  Legislature  that  in  the  very 
same  breath  exempted  the  Yazooists  therefrom.  Certainly 
we  see  here  a  device  altogether  worthy  of  the  law-learning 
and  technical  artifice  and  skill  which  abounded  in  the 
Yazoo  ranks  ;  a  device  moreover,  which  nothing  but  Yazoo 
corruption  could  have  carried  in  triumph  through  the  two 
Houses  of  the  General  Assembly  and  then  through  the  Ex- 
ecutive Branch  of  the  Government  also.  For  corruption  must 
have  found  its  way  there  too,  if  not  directly  to  the  very 
breast  and  pocket  of  the  Governor,  which  we  would  fain 
hope  was  not  the  case,  yet  undoubtedly  to  those  by  whom 
he  was  advised  and  influenced. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  87 

It  was  the  ill  fate  of  Col.  George  Matthews  to  fill  the  Exec- 
utive Chair  at  this  date  and  to  affix  the  signature  that  at  once 
made  the  monstrous  iniquity  a  law  and  fastened  forever  upon 
himself  the  character  of  a  great  public  criminal.  Vain 
would  be  any  attempt  to  palliate  his  conduct,  although  there 
have  been  writers  who  ventured  upon  such  attempt.  The 
best  that  can  be  said  in  mitigation  for  him  is  that  his  entire 
action  in  the  matter  seemed  to  be  the  result  as  much  of  weak- 
ness as  of  wickedness,  and  excites  our  sorrow  along  with  our 
anger  whilst  we  are  sternly  consigning  his  name  to  dishonor. 
The  heart  cannot  but  feel  some  generous  relenting  towards 
this  heroic,  hard-fighting  and  thorough-going,  though  un- 
couth and  unscholarly  Revolutionary  patriot  and  warrior, 
when  we  behold  him  elevated,  after  the  close  of  the  war,  to 
a  great  political  post  for  which  he  was  wholly  unfit  and 
where  he  was  destined  almost  certainly  to  fall  a  victim  to 
his  own  utter  incompetency  and  the  misleading  arts  and  in- 
fluence of  those  around  him  on  whom  he  was  obliged  help- 
lessly to  lean.  The  wounds  received  and  the  laurels  won 
by  such  a  man  in  the  terrible  days  of  his  country's  dangers 
and  trials,  "plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued,"  in  his 
favor  ever  afterwards,  and  cause  us  to  look  upon  his  worst 
political  misdeeds  with  a  gentleness  of  reprobation  which 
we  extend  not  to  mere  civilians  and  men  who  can  show  no 
blood  earned  title  to  the  public  gratitude.  But,  neverthe- 
less, Governor  Matthews,  in  spite  of  this  kindly  popular  feel- 
ing towards  him  and  although  no  direct  charge  of  being 
personally  bribed  and  corrupted,  so  far  as  I  ever  heard,  was 
at  any  time  alleged  against  him,  was  politically  ruined  in 
Ge  Tgia  by  the  odium  of  his  official  complicity  with  the 
Yazoo  Fraud.  'It  was  enough  for  the  people  that  by  his  single 
dissent  he  might  have  defeated  that  stupendous  villainy  and 
that  he  did  not  do  it,  but  on  the  contrary  gave  it  his  assent 
and  vitalized  it  with  his  signing  hand.  And  besides  there 
were  other  strongly  exasperating  circumstances  against  him. 
The  two  bills,  the  State  Troops  Act  and  that  for  the  Yazoo 
Sale,  were  both  before  him  for  his  signature  at  the  same 


00  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

time.  The  former  lie  signed  and  returned  on  the  28th  of 
December.  The  latter  he  refused  to  sign  and  sent  back  with 
his  objections  on  the  same  day.  How  it  happened  that  so 
soon  afterwards  as  the  7th  of  January  he  was  gotten  to  fore- 
go all  his  objections  and  to  sign  another  bill  substantially 
the  same,  only  enough  altered  to  give  him  a  pretext  for 
saying  that  it  was  not  the  same  but  another  bill,  was  never 
explained  and  naturally  gave  rise  to  deeply  damaging  sur- 
mises against  him.  And  assuredly,  moreover,  his  case  was 
not  bettered  by  the  unhappy  fact  of  his  total  neglect  in  his 
list  of  objections  of  the  28th  of  December,  to  take  any  notice 
of  a  matter  so  capital  and  striking  as  the  omission  in  the 
Yazoo  Bill  of  the  above  mentioned  restrictions  contained  in 
the  State  Troops  Act,  which  he  had  just  examined  and  signed. 
His  failure  to  notice  and  brand  this  omission  cannot  be 
viewed  otherwise  than  as  a  mark  of  his  sanction  given  to  it 
at  that  time  by  implication,  as  afterwards  it  was  expressly 
given  when  on  the  7th  of  January,  he  finally  signed  the  bill 
and  made  it  a  law. 

The  clue  to  the  excessive  anxiety  we  have  noticed  on  the 
part  of  the  Yazooists  to  have  on  the  very  face  of  their 
Legislation  clear,  merchantable  titles,  free  i'rom  all  restric- 
tions or  contingencies,  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  their 
scheme  was  designed  from  the  beginning  to  be  one  of  rapid 
sales  and  conversion  into  money,  not  of  protracted  ownership 
awaiting  the  extinction  of  the  Indian  title  by  government 
and  the  subsequent  gradual  increase  of  the  value  of  the 
lands.  It  was  in  order  that  they  might  successfully  carry 
out  this  scheme  that  they  wanted  a  law  which  they  could 
parade  and  bepraise  in  the  markets  of  the  world  as  giving  a 
present  absolute  estate,  not  merely  future  contingent  rights 
and  expectations.  With  such  a  law  and  titles  under  it 
good  and  specious  on  the  surface  though  well  known  to 
themselves  to  be  in  reality  unsound  and  vulnerable  to  attack 
by  both  the  United  States  and  Georgia,-  they  hoped  to  be 
rapidly  able  to  succeed  in  alluring  into  large  purchasing 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  89 

strangers  and  uninformed,  distant  people,  that  class  who  are 
always  predestined  as  their  victims  by  wicked,  shrewd-con- 
triving speculators. 

But  not  only  did  these  shrewd,  enterprising  speculators 
want  and  resolve  to  get  per  fas  aut  per  nefas,  titles  that 
should  he  in  all  respects  current  and  alluring  in  the  land 
market,  hut  they  wanted  all  the  world  as  a  market  for  their 
immense  and  unrighteous  landed  wares.  To  this  end,  how- 
ever, it  was  necessary  to  contrive  some  way  of  evading  the 
law  of  Georgia  disabling  aliens  to  hold  land  in  this  State. 
And  here  agian  it  was  deemed  expedient  not  to  drive  at 
their  object  openly  but  to  seek  it  by  legislative  indirection  and 
trickery.  Their  cunning  plan  was  to  have  a  clause  inserted 
in  the  very  Act  of  Sale  affecting  a  patriotic  hostility  to 
foreigners  becoming  owners  of  real  estate  in  Georgia.  By 
this  'clause  the  Yazoo  purchasers  and  their  associates  are 
prohibited  from  disposing  of  the  lands  in  part  or  in  the 
whole,  in  any  way  or  manner,  "to  any  foreign  king,  prince,  po- 
tentate or  power  ivliatever."  The  palpable,  precogitated  ob- 
ject of  inserting  this  clause  was  that  the  Yazoo  companies 
should  by  clear  implication  be  entitled  to  sell  and  convey  to 
all  other  foreigners  than  the  very  few  who  fall  under  the 
description  of  .' 'kings,  princes,  potentates  and  powers." 
And  not  only  is  this  almost  boundless  license  of  selling  to 
foreigners  thus  surreptitiously  incorporated  in  the  law,  but 
it  is  also  required  to  be  set  forth  in  the  very  face  of  the 
grants  that  were  to  be  issued  under  the  law  to  the  companies, 
in  order  that  foreigners  might  thereby  be  the  more  strongly 
tempted  to  become  buyers,  seeing  that  their  right  to  buy  was 
doubly  secured  both  by  the  law  itself  and  then  by  the  State's 
grants  and  conveyances  founded  upon  it.  Fit  companion- 
piece  this  to  the  villainous  "supplementary"  device  to  which 
it  is  appended  and  which  we  have  but  a  moment  ago  had 
occasion  to  reprobate  and  brand  ! 


90  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

SECTION  V. 

Not  for  more  than  three  score  years  and  ten,  not  indeed  until 
a  new  and  monstrous  race  of  political  caitiffs,  foul  harpies 
of  the  North,  the  vile  brood  of  a  peace  worse  than  war,  of  a 
reconstruction  worse  than  ruin,  swarmed  down  upon  our  fair 
and  hapless  South  and  made  it  one  vast  sickening  scene  of 
official  atrocity  and  villainy,  securely  practised  under  a  re- 
morseless Federal  patronage,  had  the  people  of  Georgia  ever 
gotten  over  their  vivid,  loathing  remembrance  of  this  old 
Yazoo  crime.  Now,  however,  that  renowned  turpitude  of 
the  last  century  has  been  unseated  from  its  preeminence.  Far 
outstripped  by  the  teeming  infamies,  political  and  pecuni- 
ary, of  these  latter  times,  it  is  rfo  longer  capable  of  exciting 
amazement  in  the  recollecting  mind.  Little  wonder  is  now 
felt  that  in  young,  immature  Georgia,  some  eighty  years 
ago,  a  gigantic,  corrupt  speculation,  as  remarkable  for  the 
ability  and  standing  of  the  men  concerned  in  it  as  for  the 
abundance  and  baseness  of  the  means  they  employed,  should 
have  succeeded  in  debauching  and  triumphing  over  a  poorly 
enlightened  and  very  diminutive  legislative  body  of  those 
early  times. 

Yes!  very  diminutive  that  body  still  was.  For,  although, 
by  the  formation  of  new  counties  the  Senate  had  grown 
larger,  still  it  consisted  of  only  twenty  members,  every  man 
of  whom,  save  one,  was  in  his  seat  on  the  final  passage  of 
the  bill,  and  all  voted  except  the  -President,  Benjamin  Tali- 
aferro,  ten  for  the  law,  eight  against  it.  Had  it  been  neces- 
sary for  the  President  to  vote,  it  is  well  known  that  he 
would  have  cast  his  vote  in  the  negative,  so  that  the  meas- 
ure really  had  a  majority  of  but  one  in  the  Senate.  In  the 
lower  House  the  number  of  members  still  remained  at 
thirty-four,  there  being  a  peculiar  provision  in  the  new  con- 
stitution against  the  number  being  increased  by  the  creation 
of  new  counties.  There  were  but  twenty-nine  members 
present,  including  the  Speaker,  Thomas  Napier,  who  did 
not  vote.  Nineteen  votes  were  given  in  the  affirmative 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  91 

and  only  nine  in  the  negative.  It  effected  tins,  its  second 
passage,  through  this  body  on  the  second  of  January, 
through  the  Senate  on  the  third,  and  on  the  seventh  Gover- 
nor Matthews  affixed  his  hesitating  signature,  and  the  atro- 
cious deed  was  complete  that  has  ever  since  resounded  as  a 
great  shame  in  our  history,  blurring  its  virgin  page,  blight- 
iug  every  name  implicated  in  it,  and  leaving  more  or  less  of 
blemish  wherever  a  shadow  of  imputation  connected  with  it 
has  ever  fallen.  It  required  a  mighty  and  multifarious  ef- 
fort to  accomplish  it.  Many  men  and  every  sort  of  men  and 
means  were  subsidized  and  yet  the  change  of  a  single  vote  in 
the  Senate  would  have  defeated  it  as  we  have  just  seen  and 
said. 

i  will  not  undertake  to  reproduce  in  detail  here  the  revolt- 
ing scenes  of  which  Augusta  was  the  theatre  during  that 
infamous  session,  when  everything  was  venal,  when  the 
Legislative  Halls  were  converted  into  shambles,  and  the 
honor  of  the  State  and  the  grandest  public  interests  were 
shamelessly  put  up  to  open  sale  for  the  vile  lucre-sake  of 
traitorous  Representatives  and  their  corruptors.  Reason 
abundant  is  there  forsooth  to  deter  from  attempting  such 
portrayal.  For  I  hold  no  graphic  pen,  and  then  what  pen 
could  impart  to  those  scenes  aught  of  horrific  effect  or  pun- 
gent interest  nowadays,  when  men's  minds  have  become 
scared  by  spectacles  of  the  grossest  depravity  in  the  high  as 
well  as  low  places  of  the  government  passing  continually 
before  their  eyes  and  passing  not  only  without  punishment 
but  without  shame  or  rebuke?  Suffice  it  to  say  that  every 
vote  given  for  the  law  save  one,  that  of  Robert  Watkins, 
was  undeniably  a  corrupt  vote  purchased  either  with  money 
or  the  gift  of  subshares  in  the  speculation,  or  both.  In  aid 
moreover,  of  the  measure,  the  active  exertions  and  influence 
of  men  of  weight  and  character  out  of  the  Legislature  was 
in  very  many  instances  secured  by  similar  means,  or  by  pre- 
vailing on  them  to  become  interested  on  like  terms  with  the 
original  members  of  the  companies.  It  is  due,  however,  to 
the  memory  of  numerous  persons  who  .became  connected  in 


92  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

this  latter  way  with  the  speculation,  seduced  by  the  great  and 
distinguished  names  of  some  leading  men  in  it,  to  say  that 
they  were  alike  unknowing  and  incapable  of  the  turpitude 
involved  in  the  project,  and  that  not  a  few.  on  their  eyes 
being  opened,  instead  of  making  haste  after  the  example  of 
their  chiefs,  to  sell  out  arid  pocket  their  gains,  repudiated 
the  whole  thing,  receiving,  back  subsequently  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Rescinding  Act  of  Georgia,  the  portions  of 
the  purchase  money  they  had  respectively  contributed, 
whilst  there  were  others  who  simply  abandoned  the  pittance 
of  one-fifth  of  the  purchase  money  which  it  had  devolved,  on 
them  to  pay.  The  report  made  on  the  Ifith  day  of  Febru- 
ary, 1803,  by  Messrs.  Madison,  Gallatin  and  Lincoln,  com- 
missioners* under  an  Act  of  Congress  for  investigating  the 
Yazoo  claims,  is  accompanied  with  a  long  catalogue  of  the 
names  of  persons,  Georgians  and  others,  secondary  as  well 
as  original  purchasers,  who  had  thus  withdrawn  their  pay- 
ments from  the  State  Treasury,  amounting  in  the  aggregate 
to  $310,695  15.  Thus  it  appears  that  in  this  as  in  most 
cases  where  a  great  multitude  of  people  are  implicated,  not 
only  were  there  many  different  degrees  of  guilt,  but  those 
also  were  to  be  found  who  by  their  conduct  eventually  saved 
themselves  from  the  reproach  of  knowingly  persevering  in 
crime. 

In  this  connection,  the  honored  name  of  Patrick  Henryf 
comes  strikingly  up  and  claims  some  mention.  Yielding  to 
that  rather  too  great  greed  for  money  which  is  said  to  have 
characterized  him  and  not  duly  reflecting,  it  may  be  hoped, 
on  the  objections  to  the  speculation,  he  became  a  leading 
member  of  the  Virginia  Yazoo  Company  of  1^89.  When, 
however,  the  heavy  frowns  and  antagonism  of  Washing- 
ton aroused  his  attention  to  the  demerits  and  criminality 
of  the  project,  he  seems  to  have  stopped  short  ;  at  all  events 
he  allowed  not  himself  to  be  connected  with  the  subsequent 
Yazoo  scheme,  and  is  no  more  to  be  seen  taking  any  part  or 

*  American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands.     Vol.  1,  p.  2UO. 
fAmerican  State  Papers.  Public  Lands.   Vol.  1.  p.  !:J:.'.  1">0. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  93 

interest  in  the  thing,  sought  for  although  his  great  name 
was  to  give  it  sanction  and  enhance  its  chances  of  success. 
Happy  for  his  imperishable  fame,  this  rather  narrow  escape,* 
and  that  in  him  a  strong  sense  of  character  and  an  almost 
exorbitant  love  of  shining  repute  among  men  were  sufficient 
checks  against  that  mean  passion  for  riches  which  was  the 
bane  of  not  a  few  public  and  official  men  in  that  day  as 
well  as  in  our  own  more  impure  times. 

In  painful  contrast  with  this  conduct  of  the  illustrious 
patriot  orator  stands  that  of  a  number  of  conspicuous,  con- 
temporary characters  whom,  although  clothed  with  public 
honors,  neither  that  or  any  other  consideration  availed  to 
restrain  or  reclaim  from  a  career  of  turpitude  and  incivism 
into  which  they  were  drawn  by  the  accursed  thirst  of  gold. 
Their  names,  consequently,  have  found  an  unenviable  berth 
in  history,  forever  associated  with  the  stench  and  stigma  of 
the  Yazoo  Fraud.  Nor  do  they  deserve  a  better  fate  than 
that  the  more  important  among  them  at  least  should  be  re- 
called and  gibbeted  in  these  evil  days  of  expiring  public 
virtue  and  growing  national  vice  and  degeneracy.  So  may 
bad  men,  filling  and  betraying  high  public  trusts,  be  taught 
what  awaits  them  at  the  bar  of  posterity,  however  much 
they  may  flourish  and  prosper  during  their  own  base  lives. 

Behold,  then,  occupying  a  place  among  the  most  exalted 
national  dignitaries  of  his  day,  and  at  the  same  time  figuring 
in  the  van  of  this  corrupt  and  corrupting  speculation,  James 
Wilson,  of  Pensylvania,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, a  member  for  years  of  the  old  Continental  Con- 
gress, a  member  also  of  the  Convention  that  framed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  at  this  very  time  one 
of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
appointed  at  the  first  organization  of  that  great  tribunal, 
the  very  tribunal  before  which  he  well  knew  might  come, 
and  before  which  eventually  did  come,  though  after  his 

*Narrow,  indeed,  for  some  detriment  he  actually  sustained  in  public  estima- 
tion in  Virginia  from  his  connection  with  the  Yaxoo  business,  notwithstanding 
his  early  disappearance  from  it.  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry;  near  the  end. 


94  THE  YAZOO   FRAUD. 

death,  the  question  of  the  validity  of  the  title  acquired  hy 
himself  and  his  companions  in  this  vast  and  profligate  trans- 
action. Behold  this  man  stooping  from  his  proud  official 
elevation,  bringing  disrepute  on  the  sublimest  judicial 
Bench  in  the  world,  and  becoming  an  active,  leading  partner 
interested  to  the  extent  of  three  quarters  of  a  million  of 
acres*  in  a  foul,  lawless,  unpatriotic  speculation  of  gigantic 
magnitude  and  wickedness.  Behold  him  there  not  only 
mightily  interested,  but  by  that  interest  so  demoralized  as 
to  become  an  industrious,  bare-faced  worker  in  the  vile 
cause  :|  behold  him  and  from  him  learn  how  little  assur- 
ance of  purity  the  highest  public  station  gives,  and  how 
little  any  official  atmosphere  is  worth  either  as  a  safeguard 
or  antidote  against  that  moral  poison  for  which  poor  human 
nature  has  such  a  lamentable  affinity.  Judge  Wilson,  un- 
happily, had  run  a  long  debasing  career  as  a  speculator, 
especially  in  Indian  lands,  dating  back  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,' the  proofs  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  the 
American  State  Papers  by  the  petitions  and  memorials  with 
which  he,,  although  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  not 
ashamed  to  importune  Congress  in  behalf  of  Companies  of 
speculators  to  which  he  belonged  and  of  which  he  was  the 
organ ^  : — speculators,  too,  whose  claims  had  a  worse  than 
Spanish  character  and  stood  upon  a  worse  than  the  Spanish 
principle,  because  wholly  unsupported  by  that  precedent, 
governmental  warrant  and  authority,  which  even  the  Spanish 
system  imperatively  required.  These  circumstances  in  re- 
gard to  the  Judge  were  doubtless  well  known  to  persons  con- 
nected with  the  speculation  residing  in  Philadelphia,  the 
Judge's  home,  and  became  well  known  to  Gen.  Gunn  also, 
whilst  serving  in  Congress  there.  Hence  the  early  and  too 
well  received  overtures  that  were  made  to  him.  It  was  a 
great  point  to  the  Yazooists  to  have  gained  such  a  man  as 
Judge  Wilson  to  their  ranks,  though  for  his  own  fame  and 

*American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands.  Vol.  1,  p  141. 
fWhite's  Statistics,  p  50. 

^American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.   1.  p,  27,  72,  73.     Sanderson's 
Lives  of  the  Signers ;  Title,  James  Wilson. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  1)5 

the  honor  of  the  great  tribunal  in  which  he  sat,  it  is  to  be 
lamented  that  instead  of  listening  to  the  overtures  that  were 
made  to  him,  he  did  not  like  our  more  than  Roman  Sena- 
tor, Gen.  James  Jackson,  firmly  and  indignantly  repel 
them. 

Side  by  side,  fit  yokefellow  with  this  Judge  of  the  highest 
Federal  Court,  stands  Nathaniel  Pendletpn,  District  Judge 
of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Georgia,  who  to  his 
services  as  a  lobbyist  for  the  concern  added  those  of  chair- 
man of  the  meetings  of  the  coalitionists,  signing  and  issuing 
as  such  the  certificates  for  shares  donated  to  the  bribed  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature  an-d  the  hirelings  employed  to  buy 
and  influence  their  votes.  Of  the  nature  and  amount  of  his 
reward  no  trace  is  to  be  found,  but  that  it  was  great  in  pro- 
portion to  the  dignity  and  sanctity  of  the  ermine  lie  soiled 
and  to  the  baseness  and  importance  of  the  services  he  ren- 
dered there  can  be  no  doubt. f 

See,  also,  in  the  train  of  these  two  Federal  Judges,  their 
bold  Aid-de-Camp,  Mathew  McAlister,  District  Attorney 
of  the  United  States  for  Georgia,  a  leading  member  of  the 
Georgia  Company,  one  of  the  original  grantees,  who  unlike 
the  culprit  Judges  and  some  others,  shrank  not  from  having 
his  name  emblazoned  on  the  face  of  the  Act,  where  it  stands 
opprobriously  eternized,  little  advantaged  by  Gen.  Jackson's 
consuming  fire.  See,  also,  William  Stith,  Judge  of  the 
Superior  Courts  of  Georgia,  arid  at  that  time  there  were  but 
two  such  Judges  and  but  two  Circuits,  the  Eastern  and  the 
"Western,  to  which  the  two  Judges  were  equally  elected  and 
in  which  they  had  to  preside  by  turns,  thus  bringing  each 
Judge  into  every  county  of  the  State  once  a  year  in  his  judi- 
cial ridings.  Judge  Stith  sold  his  great  influence  growing 
out  of  his  office  and  these,  his  annual  visitations  all  over  the 
State,  for  $13,000  in  money  and  some  delusive  hopes  of  the 
Governorship  that  were  held  out  to  him.  The  money  he 
actually  pocketed  and  found  himself  reproached  afterwards 


f  American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  I,  p.  145,  147.     White's  Statis- 
tics, p.  50. 


96  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

for  not  being  generous  with  it  to  his  poor  relations.*  His 
colleague  in  the  Judgeship,  the  pure  and  upright  George 
Walton,  one  of  Georgia's  immortal  Signers,  was  incorrupti- 
ble, and  his  name  is  a  pride  to  the  State  forever,  free  from 
spot  or  blemish. 

Stepping  across  the  Savannah  river,  Colonel,  afterwards 
General,  Wade  Hampton  claims  our  attention  as  one  of  the 
imposing  figures  in  the  Yazoo  group.  He  was  a  member 
elect  to  Congress  from  South  Caorlina,  a  man,  moreover, 
of  high  prestige  from  having  been  a  gallant  officer  of  the 
Revolution,  distinguished  now  for  his  great  wealth,  his  com- 
manding position  in  society,  his  extraordinary  energy,  en- 
terprise and  capacity  in  affairs,  all  which  necessarily  made 
him  a  power  wherever  he  put  his  hands  or  set  his  head. 
Behold  this  man,  destined  in  after  years  to  immense  riches 
and  to  become  widely  famous  as  the  most  princely  planter  of 
all  the  South,  and  whom  in  his  vigorous  old  age  Mr.  Madisjn 
honored  by  reproducing  him  on  the  field,  first  as  a  Brigadier 
General,  in  anticipation  of  a  war  with  England,  and  then 
upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  as  a  Major  General.  But 
he  was  not  more  successful  in  adorning  his  gray  hairs  with 
new  laurels  than  were  the  other  Revolutionary  veterans 
whom  the  President  unluckily  called  from  retirement  and 
clothed  with  high  command.  The  only  distinction  he  won  of 
which  lam  aware  was  that  of  being  the  ill-starred  Gen.  Wil- 
kinson's evil  genius,  superseding  him  by  Presidential  order 
at  New  Orleans,  in  1810;  quarreling  instead  of  co-operating 
with  him  on  the  Canada  line  in  1813;  and  yet  never  called 
to  any  account  or  subjected  to  any  Presidential  censure 
therefor.  But  behold  him  now  in  his  proud  meridian  of 
manhood,  embarking  in  this  vast  speculation  with  his  great 
means  and  influence,  and  a  much  more  colossal  interest  than 
any  other  man.  And  further,  behold  him  losing  no  time 
after  the  buying  from  the  State,  but  with  characteristic  sa- 
gacity and  celerity  hastening  to  become  a  mighty  seller  of 
what  he  had  bought,  and  in  less  than  a  year  safely  shifting 

•American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  I,  p.  148. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  97 

off  his  enormous  portion  of  the  prey  into  other  hands  at  a 
huge  profit  and  putting  the  money  in  his  pocket,  eluding  thus 
the  annulling  vengeance  of  Georgia,  which  he  well  knew 
would  soon  start  up  in  pursuit,  but  which  he  also  knew 
could  not  overtake  and  rend  the  great  villainy  until  another 
Legislature  should  meet  and  have  a  chance  to  act  upon  it.* 
Along  with  Col.  Hampton,  South  Carolina  sent  to  Augusta 
on  the  great  felonious  occasion  another  man  of  hardly  less 
note  and  force,  though  noted  in  a  different  way,  namely, 
Rohert  Goodloe  Harper,  also  a  member  of  Congress,  destined 
to  become  distinguished  on  that  theatre,  great  both  as  a 
lawyer  and  statesman,  whose  speeches,  long  ago  collected 
and  published  in  two  goodly  octavos,  I  read  and  even  studied 
in  my  young  days  and  thought  they  ranked  him  among  the 
giants  of  those  old  times.  What  drove  him  or  drew  him  from 
the  political  field  and  from  South  Carolina  afterwards,  and 
sent  him  to  Baltimore  to  bury  himself  there  for  the  remain- 
der of  his  life  in  the  practice  of  law,  I  have  never  known.  It 
may  have  been  a  combination  of  causes.  For  in  addition  to 
his  large  interest  of  131,000  acres,  and  consequent  great  ac- 
tivity in  the  Yazoo  matter,  he  was  one  of  those  who  perse- 
vered in  1801,  through  all  the  thirty-six  ballotings,  in  cast- 
ing the  vote  of  South  Carolina  for  Aaron  Burr  against  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson in  that  fearful  conflict  for  the  Presidency;  and  so  perse- 
vered in  the  face  of  the  unquestioned  fact  that  Mr.  Jefferson 

•American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  1,  197,  and  elsewhere  under  the 
Yazoo  head.  Military  Affairs,  Vol.  1,  page  462,  479. 

Extract  from  White's  Statistics,  page  50: 

"In  the  lobbies  of  the  Senate  and  House  alternately,  were  to  be  seen  a  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  from  Pennsylvania,  with  $-20,000  in 
his  hands,  it  was  said,  fora  cash  payment;  a  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of 
the  United  States,  from  Georgia,  passing  off  shares  of  land  to  the  members  for 
their  votes;  and  a  Senator  from  Georgia,  who  had  perfidiously  neglected  to 
proceed  to  Philadelphia  to  take  his  seat  in  Congress,  and  who  was  absent  from 
his  post  until  the  three  last  days  of  the  session,  bullying  with  a  loaded  whip  and 
by  turns  cajoling  the  numerous  understrappers  in  speculation.  There  were  to 
be  seen  also  a  Judge  of  our  Superior  Courts  and  other  eminent  Georgians,  <tc. 

"Our  sister  State  of  South  Carolina  was  also  represented  by  one  who  was 
regarded  as  a  prince  of  speculators,  &c." 


98  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

was  alike  the  electoral  and  popular  choice  of  the  State.  The 
odor  of  both  which  passages  in  his  life  became  afterwards 
so  intensely  bad  in  South  Carolina  as  to  have  probably  ren- 
dered the  atmosphere  there  decidedly  unsuited  to  him,  polit- 
ically, professionally  and  socially. 

Coming  back  to  Georgia,  we  behold  on  the  speculators' 
dark  roll  not  a  few  names  of  that  day  highly  respectable  in 
all  the  walks  of  private  life,  from  the  shades  of  which,  as  they 
never  emerged  while  living,  it  would  be  wrong  to  drag  them 
from  the  repose  of  the  grave  now  that  they  are  dead. 
Among  them  there  were  not  wanting  gifted  minds  and  as- 
piring spirits  who  yearned  for  a  high  and  bright  career,  but 
their  political  star,  quenched  beneath  the  horizon  by  their 
Yazoo  complicity,  was  never  allowed  to  ascend  and  shine  in 
our  firmament.  Such  seems  to  have  been  generally  the  fate 
of  those  who  had  come  within  blighting  contact  of  the  great 
villainy.  To  the  sons  of  ambition  it  was  the  deadly  polit- 
ical sin  of  that  era,  and  for  it  no  length  of  time  or  depth  of 
penitence  or  merit  of  subsequent  demeanor  could  ever 
bring  amnesty  or  oblivion. 

The  names  we  have  recited  and  others  of  less  celebrity,  but 
of  no  mean  pretensions  in  their  time,  show  what  an  imposing 
array  of  talent,  character  and  influence,  and  especially  what 
a  strong  Law  Staff  the  Yazooists  hoasted  in  their  ranks,  and 
account  abundantly  for  the  legal  skill  and  subtlety  and  the 
remarkable  technical  artifice  and  ability  apparent  in  the 
contriving  and  framing  of  the  legislation  procured  from  the 
State.  And  it  is  by  no  means  surprising  that  by  the  combined 
efforts  of  so  many  such  men,  with  abundant  pecuniary  means 
at  their  command  and  no  scruples  or  restraints  of  principle  in 
their  way,  surrounded  and  reinforced,  as  they  were  besides, 
by  a  numerous  phalanx  of  active  subalterns  and  colaborers, 
our  raw,  petty,  unschooled  Legislature  should  have  been 
jostled  from  its  propriety,  started,  as  it  were,  from  its  per- 
pendicularity, and  made  the  more  easy  to  give  way  before 
the  grosser  engines  of  bribery  and  corruption  that  were  held 
in  reserve  and  at  length  brought  powerfully  into  play. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  99 


SECTION  V  (Continued.) 

To  quit  the  Yazoo  Legislature  with  only  the  little  notice 
tbat  has  yet  been  taken  of 

JAMES  GUNN 

would  be  unjust  as  well  to  him  as  to  our  theme,  and  would 
be  pretty  much  such  a  slighting  of  him  as  it  would  be  to 
snub  Satan  in  giving  an  account  of  Pandemonium  and  its 
population,  which,  by  the  way,  Dante  came  very  nigh  doing, 
for  in  all  his  long,  downward  journey  under  the  escort  of 
Virgil  through  the  nine  circles  of  his  ever-narrowing,  ever- 
intensating  Hell,  he  fails  to  encounter  or  mention  his  Dia- 
bolic Majesty  until  having  reached  the  nethermost  depth 
where  the  reign  of  frost  begins  and  never  ends,  he  comes 
upon  him  at  last  writhing  in  lone,  unsociable  misery, 
wedged  in  eternal  ice,  with  a  hard,  merciless  chill  upon  him 
in  the  very  neck  of  that  inverted,  infernal  hollow  cone.* 

What  made  this  very  undeserving  or  rather  ill-deserving 
man,  Gunn,  so  unduly  prominent  and  distinguished  in 
Georgia  for  a  number  of  years  is  a  puzzling  question,  one 
which  finds  no  sufficient  solution  in  any  facts  of  his  history 
which  have  come  down  to  us.  He  belonged  not  to  Georgia 
but  to  Virginia  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  came  to 
the  South  in  the  army  of  General  Greene,  when  that  illus- 
trious commander  was  sent  hither  by  Washington  towards 
the  close  of  the  great  struggle  to  retrieve  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia  after  that  tremendous  blow,  the  loss  of  the  battle 
of  Camden.  The  first  trace  of  him  I  have  succeeded  in  dis- 
covering presents  him  as  a  Captain  of  Dragoons  in  the  Vir- 
ginia line,  above  which  rank  he  never  rose,  nor  is  there  any 
evidence  of  his  ever  having  won  distinction  in  it.  Indeed, 
nothing  is  particularly  known  of  his  military  career  except 

*"Lo  'mperador  del  doloroso  regno 

Da  mezzo  'I  petto  usciafuor  delta  ghiaccia." 

Dell'  Inferno,  Canto  34. 

"The  emperor  of  the  dolorous  realm  from  mid  breast  stood  forth  out  of  the 
ice." 


100  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

his  wanton  and  even  wicked  impressment  and  "bringing  to 
Georgia  for  his  own  use  of  the  celebrated  stallion  Romulus, 
about  which  the  indefatigable  widow,  Amy  Darden,  never 
ceased  to  beset  Congress,  until  finally  she  got  her  pay  after 
nearly  forty  years  of  importunity;  and  then,  secondly,  he  was 
afterwards  guilty  of  another  disreputable  and  improper  piece 
of  conduct  about  horses  which  brought  upon  him  formal 
censure  and  reprimand  from  Gen.  Greene  ;  and  lastly,  it  is 
recorded  of  him  that  he  failed  to  arrive  in  time  with  his 
dragoons  to  take  part  in  a  difficult  and  hazardous  affair 
near  Savannah  as  late  as  1782,  in  which  Gen.  Wayne  had 
ordered  him  to  co-operate.  The  success  of  that  attempt 
was  complete,  however,  without  his  presence  or  aid,  and  as 
it  was  the  last  blow  of  the  war  (for  in  a  very  short  time  Sa- 
vannah was  surrendered  to  Gen.  Wayne  by  the  British  and 
the  war  ended  in  Georgia  as  it  had  already  done  substantial- 
ly, at  least,  everywhere  else,)  no  inquiry  was  ever  instituted 
whether  his  non-arrival  in  time  was  his  misfortune  or  his 
fault.  Such,  neither  more  or  less,  is  the  whole  story  of 
Gunn's  Revolutionary  services  so  far  as  it  is  known  at  this 
day. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  war,  he  took  up  his  residence  in 
Georgia,  and  seems  to  have  thriven  rapidly  under  the  sun- 
shine of  peace.  For  soon  we  read  of  him  under  the  title  of 
Colonel  heading  a  posse  of  militia  and  breaking  up  a  gang 
of  runaway  negroes  who,  having  become  demoralized  during 
the  war,  had  quitted  the  plantations,  some  for  the  British 
camps,  some  for  the  swamps,  in  one  of  which  on  Bear  Creek 
they,  after  the  peace,  fortified  themselves  in  their  rude  way 
both  for  greater  safety  and  with  a  view  of  living  permanent- 
ly by  plunder,  fish  and  game.  This  dispersing  of  the  runa- 
ways was  undoubtedly  a  very  good  thing  done  by  Col. 
Gunn,  but  it  was  also  the  easiest  and  least  perilous  thing  in 
the  world,  and  any  other  Colonel  or  other  commander  of 
the  posse  could  have  done  it  as  well,  and  the  solemn 
pains  with  which  it  is  circumstantially  narrated  in  a 
stately  history  of  the  State  savors  a  little  of  the  ludicrous, 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  101 

and  fails  to  help  us  to  any  solution  of  Gunn's  subsequent 
rapid  rise  and  distinction. 

For  even  if  this  feat  could  be  supposed  (as  it  cannot  be)  of 
any  worth  towards  such  a  solution,  it  was  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  ruffianly,  disgraceful  conduct  of  which 
he  was  guilty  towards  Gen.  Greene.*  That  pure  and  noble 
man,  second  only  to  Washington  in  Revolutionary  merit  and 
glory,  and  to  whom  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  owed  such  an 
incalculable  debt  of  gratitude  for  their  final  deliverance  from 
the  clutches  of  the  enemy,  a  debt  which  Georgia  rejoiced  to 
acknowledge  by  bestowing  upon  him  a  fine  estate  and  a  beau- 
tiful homestead  near  Savannah,  this  man  who  had  so  well 
earned  and  was  so  worthily  enjoying  honor  and  homage  from 
the  whole  country,  had  hardly  set  his  foot  on  the  soil  of 
Georgia  as  a  resident,  invited  citizen,  when  he  was  met  by 
Guun  with  what  sort  of  welcome  and  hospitality?  With 
pistol  in  hand,  with  challenge  to  mortal  combat  for  alleged 
wrong  done  him  by  Gen.  Greene  as  his  commanding  officer 
in  the  aforementioned  matter  about  horses.  Not  the  least 
strange  thing  in  the  case  was  that  such  a  man  as  Colonel, 
afterwards  General,  James  Jackson,  should  be  Gunn's  second 
and  the  bearer  of  his  challenge.  In  apology  for  him,  how- 
ever, let  it  be  remembered  that  he  was  then  a  very  young  man, 
not  more  than  2*7  or  28  years  old,  and  that  he  was  by 
temperament  not  only  pugnacious  and  intrepid  in  the  high- 
est degree,  but  also  impetuous  and  somewhat  hasty.  More- 
over he  was  a  strong  believer  in  the  Code  to  which  all  gen- 
tlemen bowed  in  those  days,  and  which  holds  every  one 
answerable  by  duel  for  whatever  wrong  he  inflicts  on  anoth- 
er's honor;  a  code  which  allows  not  a  man  to  decline  serving 
his  friend  or  even  a  stranger  as  a  second  in  a  proper  case. 
To  all  which  it  must  be  added  that  he  was  fresh  from  asso- 
ciation with  Gunn  as  a  brother  officer  in  the  field,  and  that  he 
looked  upon  him  as  a  gentleman  and  as  his  own  peer;  an  opin- 
ion which  must  have  subsequently  undergone  no  small  mod- 
ification. Now  all  these  things  made  it  obligatory  on  Jack- 

*  Simms'  L:ie  oi  Gen.  Greene,  chapter  35. 


102  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

son,  according  to  his  views,  not  to  refuse  to  be  Gunn's  second 
in  any  proper'  case,  and  the  only  error  committed  by  him 
was  in  too  hastily  consenting  to  be  his  second  before  looking 
well  into  the  case,  and  being  sure  it  was  a  proper  one.  I  say 
this  was  his  only  error,  because  his  subsequent  conduct  made 
it  so  and  made  abundant  amends  for  it  besides.  For  upon 
his  calling  upon  Gen.  Greene  with  the  challenge,  and  the 
General's  declining  to  accept  it  and  stating  to  him  at  the 
same  time  the  circumstances  which  had  prompted  it,  and  his 
reasons  for  not  accepting  it,  Jackson  saw  at  once  that  Gen. 
Greene  was  right  and  tbat  a  challenge  was  not  proper  in  the 
case ;  and  so  seeing,  he  determined  on  the  spot  to  withdraw 
from  the  matter  and  did  withdraw,  communicating  to  his 
principal  this  determination  and  his  reasons.  But  these  reas- 
ons, which  were  as  imperative  as  honor  itself  with  the  noble 
Jackson,  who  ever  felt  bound  to  recede  from  what  was 
wrong  as  well  as  to  insist  upon  what  was  right,  were  thrown 
away  upon  Gunn's  base,  diabolic  nature,  and  he  renewed  the 
challenge  by  another  hand,  which,  upon  Gen.  Greene's 
again  declining,  the  brute  who  sent  it  threatened  to  assault 
him  on  sight  in  the  streets, — a  threat,  indeed,  which  he 
never  attempted  to  execute,  though  from  his  character  no 
man  could  have  felt  sure  of  his  abstaining  from  this  outrage. 
So  much  was  Gen.  Greene  wounded  by  this  treatment  on  his 
first  reaching  his  new  home  in  a  land  of  strangers,  that  he 
laid  the  whole  matter  before  Washington  by  letter  and  asked 
his  opinion  and  advice.  Washington's  reply  fully  sus- 
tained and  commended  the  course  he  had  pursued.  Indeed, 
what  can  be  more  preposterous  or  pernicious  than  that  supe- 
rior officers,  even  up  to  the  very  highest,  should  be  held 
answerable  to  their  subalterns  by  duel  for  their  acts  towards 
such  subalterns  in  the  administration  of  their  commands? 

It  only  remains  to  be  remarked  about  this  behavior  of 
Gunn's,  that  if  any  thing  could  add  to  its  enormity,  it  is  the 
fact  that  he  had  pocketed  the  alleged  wrong  for  so  long  a 
space,  and  reserved  his  call  in  regard  to  it  for  a  time  and  cir- 
cumstances which  made  that  call  an  outrage,  not  only  on 


THK  YAZOO  FRAUD.  103 

Gen.  Greene,  but  one  also  on  the  pride,  honor  and  hospital- 
ity of  Georgia;  a  call,  moreover,  from  which  he  refused  to 
desist  even  after  his  second,  and  that  second  such  a  man  as 
•Limes  Jackson,  had  so  strongly  advised  against  it  and 
stamped  it  with  his  disapproval  and  withdrawal  from  it  as 
a  second. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  his  unworthiness  and  demerits,  Gunn 
continued  to  mount  up.  He  next  became  a  Brigadier  Gen- 
eral of  militia,  an  office  bestowed  then,  and  for  half  a  centu- 
ry afterwards,  by  the  direct  votes  of  the  Legislature.  Nor 
did  he  stop  there.  When  Georgia  acceded  to  the  new  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  and  the  new  Federal  Government  under  it 
was  about  to  go  into  operation  in  1789,  he  was  chosen  along 
with  William  Few,  as  one  of  our  first  Senators  in  the  Na- 
tional Congress,  where  his  good  fortune  still  pursued  him, 
and,  in  the  allotment  of  periods  of  service  among  the  Sena- 
tors, gave  him  a  full  term  of  six  years,  while  only  four  years 
fell  to  his  colleague,  Few. 

No  particular  causes  have  reached  us  for  this,  his  great 
and  undeserved  political  advancement.  He  had  no  popu- 
lar hold,  such  as  grows  out  of  long  residence  among  a 
people,  and  strong  and  widely  ramified  sympathies  and  at^ 
tachments  with  them.-  Nor,  as  we  have  seen,  was  his  brow 
wreathed  with  laurels,  gathered  on  the  battle  fields  of  the 
Revolution,  far  and  near,  like  those  of  Gen.  Anthony  Wayne 
and  Col.  George  Matthews,  our  unhappy  Yazoo-rtiined  Gov- 
ernor, causing  our  people  to  take  them,  new  comers  as  they 
were,  at  once  to  their  bosoms  and  to  clothe  them  with  their 
highest  honors,  and  as  they  would  still  more  have 
rejoiced  to  have  done  by  Gen.  Greene,  had  it  pleased  the 
Almighty  to  spare  him  to  us.  And,  then,  after  Georgia, 
upon  the  close  of  the  war,  became  Gunn's  home,  he  did 
nothing  of  which  we  know  to  commend  him  to  his  new  fel- 
low citizens, — much  certainly  to  discommend.  There  is  but 
one  way,  and  that  not  a  very  flattering  one  to  him,  of  ac- 
counting for  his  extraordinary  rise.  It  is  simply  that  he 
was  well  gifted  as  a  demagogue,  as  a  shrewd,  supple  courtier 


104  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  the  people  and  their  officials  and  representatives ;  alto- 
gether unscrupulous,  now  bold,  bullying,  overbearing, 
now  cringing,  caressing,  insinuating,  according  as  circum- 
stances demanded  ;  master  alike  of  the  arts  of  intimidation 
and  cajolery;  in  fine,  possessed  of  the  talents  and  qualities 
by  which  in  free  elective  countries  bad  and  worthless  men  so 
often  attain  to  influence  and  power  ;  dexterous,  unprincipled, 
invincible  in  seeking,  incompetent  and  base  in  filling  office. 
It  is  not  hard  to  understand  how  such  a  man  should  have 
won  the  Senatorship  the  first  time.  The  second  time  his 
success  was  undoubtedly  in  no  small  degree  the  work  of  his 
potent  Yazoo  friends  and  partners ,  and  whom  he  repaid  in 
the  manner  he  had  stipulated  and  to  which  we  have  adverted, 
namely,  by  the  prostitution  of  his  Senatorial  influence  and 
opportunities  to  their  service.  His  energy,  activity  and  con- 
spicuousness  in  the  scenes  of  the  Yazoo  Fraud  stand  in 
strong  contrast  to  his  insignificance,  bordering  on  nothing- 
ness, in  his  Senatorial  sphere,  in  which  he  was  mainly  dis- 
tinguished for  his  tardiness  of  attendance  and  general  indif- 
ference to  duty.  Some  natures  there  are,  which  are  aroused 
and  find  a  congenial  element  only  in  plotting  and  doing 
things  ignoble  and  bad,  sinking  into  torpor  and  inanity  in 
all  the  upper  and  purer  atmospheres  of  life  and  action.  Such 
a  nature  undoubtedly  belonged  to  Gunn,  who,  with  all  his 
fair  opportunities,  both  military  and  political,  is  destined, 
should  he  unhappily  live  in  history,  to  be  known  there  only 
as  the  chieftain  of  a  great  land  robbing  villainy  and  as  the 
precursor  and  type  in  this  country  of  a  class  of  public  men, 
now  become  shameless  and  common,  pecuniary  profligates 
and  felons,  disgracing  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and 
all  the  important  places  in  the  Government. 

His  life  and  his  long  and  inglorious  Senatorship  ended 
very  nearly  together.  The  precise  time  of  his  death  I  do  not 
know,  though  it  must  have  been  not  long  before  the  meeting 
of  the  Legislature  in  1802,  for  we  find  that  Body  indulging 
in  a  singular  eccentricity  of  legislation  in  regard  to  him, 
exempting  his  estate  from  escheat  and  vesting  it  in  a  nephew, 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  105 

a  Virginian,  bearing  his  name.  His  last  term  in  the  Senate 
expired  on  the  3d  of  March,  1801,  and  that  striking  contrast 
to  him  and  proud  exemplar  of  all  patriotism  and  of  all  pub: 
lie  arid  private  honor  and  elevation  of  character,  Gen.  James 
Jackson,  had  already  been  chosen  to  replace  him  now,  as 
some  years  previously,  on  the  expiration  of  Mr.  Few's  time, 
he  had  been  chosen  to  serve  with  him  as  a  colleague. 


SECTION  VI. 

The  bunded  speculators  had  now  gotten  all  they  wanted 
from  the  Legislature  :  A  law  of  sale  making  them  un- 
shackled owners  of  vast  and  invaluable  tracts  of  Indian  ter- 
ritory, free  from  any  dependence  on  the  extinction  of  the 
Indian  title  or  the  consent  of  the  General  Government ;  con- 
ditions designedly  left  out  in  their  case  and  for  their  behoof, 
whilst  they  were  rigorously  required,  as  we  have  seen,  as 
against  our  citizen  soldiers.  In  all  other  respects,  likewise, 
this  Yazoo  Law  was  moulded  by  the  speculators  to  suit  their 
own  views  and  interests,  and  in  so  moulding  it,  they  made 
it  a  Law,  which  even  more  strongly  than  the  Yazoo  Act  of 
1789,  was  calculated  to  interfere  with  Indian  rights  and 
Spanish  pretensions,  and  with  our  Spanish  negotiations,  and 
to  put  the  peace  of  the  country  with  the  Indians  and  with 
Spain  at  hazard  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  Yazoo  purchasers, 
and  of  whomsoever  might  become  their  sub-claimants. 

Such  being  the  manifest  political  tendency  and  danger  of 
this  second  Yazoo  sale  in  its  aspect  on  national  affairs,  it 
could  not  but  attract  the  attention  of  Washington,  who, 
faithful  to  his  policy  of  1789,  at  once  took  his  stand  against 
this  huge  aggravation  of  the  crime  then  so  well  thwarted 
by  him.  Accordingly,  the  first  alarm  on  this  new  occasion 
was  sounded  by  him;  the  first  movement  in  opposition 
came  from  him.  Upon  receiving  from  Augusta  a  transcript 
of  the  nefarious  Legislation,  he  lost  no  time  in  laying  it 
before  Congress,  with  the  following  Message : 


106  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

"February  17th,  1795. 
"Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : 

"I  have  received  copies  of  two  Acts  of  the  Legislature 
of  Georgia,  one  passed  on  the  28th  of  December,  the  other 
on  the  7th  of  January  last,  for  the  purpose  of  appropriating 
and  selling  the  Indian  lands  within  the  territorial  limits 
claimed  by  that  State.  These  copies,  although,  not  officially 
certified,  have  been  transmitted  to  me  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  leave  no  doubt  of  their  authenticity.  These  Acts  embrace 
an  object  of  such  magnitude,  and  in  their  consequences  may 
so  deeply  effect  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  United  States, 
that  I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  lay  them  before  Con- 
gress. ***  ***** 
(signed)  GEO.  WASHINGTON. 

It  would  be  quite  superfluous  to  enter  upon  any  inquiry 
as  to  the  grounds  Washington  had  for  the  importance  he 
attached  to  this  subject,  and  for  the  great  solicitude  it  occa- 
sioned him.  Enough  certainly  is  to  be  found  in  the  fore- 
going pages  to  render  that  matter  plain.  As  little  difficult 
is  it  to  see  why  in  his  message  he  coupled  the  State  Troops 
Act  of  the  28th-of  December,  with  the  Yazoo  Act  of  the  7th 
of  January,  and  communicated  them  together  to  Congress  ; 
although  the  former  viewed  merely  by  itself  was  an  inno- 
cent thing,  containing  nothing  that  was  wrong  or  alarming; 
a  result  that  was  prevented  by  the  clause  in  it  prohibiting 
any  steps  being  taken  under  it  until  two  months  after  the 
Indian  title  should  be  extinguished,  and  in  regard  to  the 
Tallassee  country,  not  until  the  consent  of  the  General 
Government  should  be  given.  But  although  thus  innocent 
in  itself,  it  was  perverted  to  iniquity  by  being  tied  to  the 
Yazoo  Act,  the  sinister  aims  of  which  it  was  made  at  once 
malignly  to  aid  and  elucidate. 

It  is  note  worthy  that  Washington,  after  simply  submit- 
ting the  matter  and  the  two  obnoxious  Legislative  acts  of 
Georgia  to  Congress,  stopped  short  with  a  very  brief  ex- 
pression of  his  opinion  about  them.  He  recommends  no 
Legislation  nor  suggests  any  measures  whatever  to  the  tvro 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  10*7 

Houses.  The  reasons  for  this  reticence  in  his  message  are 
obvious.  No  new  Legislation  tvas  wanted.  A  law  had  been 
passed  in  1793  regulating  Indian  affairs  and  intercourse, 
which  was  ample  in  its  provisions  for  all  emergencies  that 
could  arise.  So  Washington  thought,  and  so  the  Commit- 
tee to  whom  the  subject  was  referred,  and  Congress  itself 
thought  ;  therefore  no  further  Legislation  was  proposed 
from  any  quarter.  The  Committee  contented  themselves 
with  a  Report  and  Resolutions  presented  on  the  23rd  of  Feb- 
ruary, in  which  they  emphatically  denounced  the  Yazoo 
sale  as  an  absolute  conveyance  to  the  Companies  of  Indian 
territories  amounting,  say  the  Committee,  to  three-fourths 
of  all  the  lands  held  by  the  Indians  under  the  sanction  of 
National  treaties  within  the  limits  claimed  by  Georgia,  of 
which  treaties  the  sale  was  of  course  a  direct  and  gross  in- 
fringement, which  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
would  be  bound  to  resist  whenever  attempted  to  be  practi- 
cally carried  out.  The  Committee  further  declare  that  the 
prerogatives  over  Indian  affairs  involved  such  wide,  various 
and  serious  consequences,  and  so  deeply  affected  the  general 
good,  that  they  could  properly  belong  only  where  the  Con- 
stitution had  vested  them — in  the  National  Authorities, 
whose  duty  they  pronounced  it  to  be,  to  secure  the  Indians 
in  their  rights  under  the  National  Treaties  ;  and  they  call 
upon  the  President  not  to  permit  infractions  of  these  Trea- 
ties by  our  own  citizens  or  others,  and  assure  him  of  the  full 
support  and  co-operation  of  Congress  in  all  these  matters. 
Still  further,  they  call  upon  him  not  to  permit  treaties  for 
the  extinguishment  of  Indian  titles  to  be  held  at  the  in- 
stance of  individuals  or  States,  even  where  the  property  in 
the  lands  would,  upon  such  extinguishment,  belong  to  such 
individuals  and  States,  &c.  And  they  wind  up  by  recom- 
mending that  all  persons  who  shall  be  assembled  or  embod- 
ied in  arms  on  lands  belonging  to  the  Indians,  for  the 
purpose  of  warring  against  them,  or  committing  depreda- 
tions upon  them,  shall  thereby  become  liable  to  the  rules  and 
articles  of  war  established  for  the  government  of  the  Troops  of 
the  United  States. 


108  THE   YAZOO   FRAUD. 

This  Report  and  Resolutions  met  the  full  sanction  of  Con- 
gress and  the  country,  which  thus  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  Washington  in  his  well  known  Indian  and  anti-Yazoo 
policy.  Even  before  the  ahove  mentioned  Act  of  1793  was 
passed,  and  when  consequently  he  had  nothing  to  guide  him 
and  point  out  his  duty  on  this  subject,  but  the  broad  gener- 
alities of  the  Constitution,  he  had  not  hesitated  to  take  on 
himself  the  responsibility  of  effectually  oppugning  and  nulli- 
fying the  first  Yazoo  sale  by  forbidding  and  arresting  all  at- 
tempts of  the  beneficiaries  under  it  to  occupy  the  Indian 
lands.  Now,  that  his  sense  of  duty  in  the  matter  and  his 
Executive  ability  were  both  abundantly  reinforced  by  appro- 
priate legislation  from  Congress  and  by  such  expressions 
and  resolves  as  had  promptly  emanated  from  that  Body  in 
response  to  his  message,  nothing  could  be  more  certain  than 
the  overwhelming  discomfiture  which  awaited  the  Yazooists 
at  his  hands,  should  they  dare  to  provoke  a  conflict  with 
him  by  attempting  to  wrest  their  ill-gotten  lands  from  the 
Indians,  either  by  outright  force  or  by  any  treaties  or  ar- 
rangements of  their  own  with  them,  whether  open  or 
covert. 

The  dangers  thus  impending  over  the  Yazoo  purchasers 
|  from  the  national  arm,  though  in  the  distance  and  contin- 
gent on  prior  aggressive  movements  by  those  purchasers 
themselves,  had  been  fully  foreseen  by  them  all  the  while, 
and  they  saw,  too,  that  they  were  dangers  from  which  their 
only  mode  of  escape  (to  which  they  were  prompt  to  resort) 
was  to  hasten,  after  their  purchase  from  the  State,  to  sell  off 
their  lands  and  to  leave  to  those,  who  should  purchase 
of  them,  to  succeed  also  to  all  the  threatened  difficul- 
ties and  perils  of  the  case,  whether  coming  from  the 
General  Government  or  from  Georgia.  In  the  actual 
event  of  things,  however,  it  befell  not  either  the  original 
grantees  or  their  sub-purchasers  to  have  this  apprehended 
collision  with  the  General  Government.  For  Georgia, 
quickly  intervening  with  her  rapid,  unsparing  vengeance, 
as  we  shall  soon  see,  crushed  the  villainy  ere  it  reached 


THK  YAZOO  FRAUD.  109 

the  stage  at  which  to  incur  blows  from  the  Federal  arm. 
And  this  speedy,  clearly  foreseen  vengeance  of  Georgia  it 
was,  far  more  than  what  was  remotely  feared  from  the  Fed- 
eral arm,  that  caused  the  Companies  to  be  in  such  a  culprit 
hurry  to  trade  off  their  wicked  landed  plunder  before  anoth- 
er Legislature  should  meet  and  have  a  chance  of  dealing 
with  their  crime.  To  this  end  their  agents  and  emissaries 
were  dispersed  promptly  and  widely  over  the  country.  '  They 
were  successful  in  finding  for  some  two  or  three  millions 
of  acres,  an  early  market  in  the  South  at  an  immense  per- 
centage of  profit.  But  it  was  the  North,  then  as  now  the 
home  of  mouied  capital  and  of  an  intense  adventurous  love 
of  gain,  that  was  chiefly  the  buyer  and  the  victim.  The 
Georgia  Company  dispatched  thither,  during  the  summer,  a 
shrewd,  plausible,  persuasive  salesman,  who  acquitted  him- 
self alike  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  employers  and  to  the  cap- 
tivation  of  quite  a  number  of  the  solid  men  of  Boston,  selling 
them  eleven  millions  of  acres  at  eleven  cents  per  acre,  thereby 
making  a  profit  of  nearly  a  million  of  dollars  to  his  Com- 
pany. These  Bostonians  subsequently  organized  under  the 
name  of  the  New  England  Mississippi  Land  Company,  and 
proceeded  to  scatter  their  lands  at  greatly  increased  prices 
among  thousands  of  beguiled  Northern  people  upon  whom 
soon  fell  that  Tower  of  Siloam,  the  Rescinding  Act  of  Geor- 
gia, and  held  them  crushed,  though  not  killed,  for  almost  a 
score  of  years,  until  at  length  the  Supreme  Court  and  Con- 
gress came  to  their  rescue.  They  were,  or  rather  were  as- 
serted years  afterwards  by  their  Congressmen  to  be,  innocent 
buyers  without  notice,  second  purchasers,  ignorant  and  un- 
suspecting of  the  fraud  that  vitiated  their  title  from  its  very 
birth.  A  story  not  very  likely,  when  we  recall  how  the  fraud 
glared  out  on  the  face  and  in  all  the  facts  of  the  Yazoo  legisla- 
tion, how  it  resounded  through  the  newspapers  all  over  the 
United  States,  how  it  stuck  out  obvious  in  the  very  deeds  (all 
without  any  general  warranty  of  title)  which  were  made  by 
the  Companies  to  their  under-purchasers,  and  by  these  latter 
to  their  successors.  And  then  as  to  the  unlawfulness  and 


110  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

criminality  of  the  sale  by  the  State  in  a  national  point  of  view, 
who  can  with  decency  pretend  that  Washington's  above- 
noticed  message  and  the  action  of  Congress  thereon  was  not 
warning  enough  to  put  the  whole  world  on  notice  and  on  its 
guard.* 

Sales  of  large  amount  were  also  made  with  the  least  pos- 
sible loss  of  time  by  the  several  companies  in  various  other 

*  Mr.  Lucas,  of  Virginia,  in  his  speech  on  the  Yazoo  Claims,  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  January,  1805,  adverting  to  the  pretence  of  the  want  of  notice 
on  the  part  of  the  New  England  purchasers,  says  :  "That  they  should  not  have 
heard  of  the  notorious  fraud  that  had  taken  place  at  the  passing  of  the  Act  of 
1795  is  a  great  astonishment  to  me  ;  that  they  should  have  made  a  purchase  of. 
eleven  millions  of  acres  without  making  inquiries  sufficient  to  discover  what 
almost  everybody  knew  throughout  the  United  States,  if  possible,  increases  my 
astonishment.  For  my  part,  having  never  thought  of  purchasing  any  land  from 
the  Georgia  land  companies,  I  made  no  inquiry  about  the  Acts  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Georgia;  yet  the  corruption  was  so  flagrant,  the  fraud  so  notorious; 
that  it  reached  my  ears  soon  after  it  was  passed."  Mr  Lucas  then  proceeds  to 
allude  to  President  Washington's  message,  above  quoted,  as  a  proclamation  to 
the  whole  country  against  the  Yazoo  Sale,  which  must  be  presumed  to  have  come 
to  everybody's  knowledge,  and  was  quite  enough  to  put  everybody  on  notice, 
He  then  proceeds  to  say  :  "I  should  rather  think  that  the  speculators  of  New 
England,  sober  and  discreet,  as  they  style  themselves  to  be,  found  the  bargain 
so  good  and  tempting,  the  means  of  pleading  ignorance  of  fraud  committed  in 
the  original  purchase  so  easy,  the  means  on  the  part  of  the  State  of  Georgia  or  its 
vendees  to  prove  the  notice  so  difficult,  that  the  sober  and  discreet  speculators  of 
New  England  thought  it  advisable  to  make  a  gambling  bargain,  expecting 
that  the  two  extremities  of  the  United  States  being  engaged  in  the  same  specu- 
lation, would  combine  their  influence  to  press  hard  upon  the  centre  and  save 
through  the  conflict  their  speculation  in  whole  or  in  part.  Other  strong  cir- 
cumstances lead  still  more  to  the  belief  that  the  New  England  Company  were 
well  aware  of  the  danger  which  did  exist  in  making  a  purchase  from  the  Geor- 
gia Land  Companies  and  that  they  were  taking  unusual  risks  on  themselves. 
This  appears  clearly  from  the  face  of  their  deeds  ;  not  only  the  covenant  of 
warranty  is  special  instead  of  being  general,  but  another  extraordinary  cove- 
nant is  entered  into  by  which  the  Georgia  Company  'is  not  liable  to  the  refunding 
of  any  money  in  consequence  of  any  defect  in  their  title  from  the  State  of  Geor- 
gia, if  any  such  there  should  appear  hereafter  to  be  !'  Was  not  such  covenant 
smelling  strongly  of  the  fraud  which  the  Georgia  Grant  was  impregnated  with  ? 
Could  the  New  England  Company  take  more  clearly  every  risk  on  themselves1? 
Could  they  more  expressly  preclude  themselves  from  every  remedy  in  law  or 
equity  in  case  of  eviction?" — Benton's  Ab.  of  Congressional  Debates,  Vol.  Ill 
p.  323,  324. 

See  also  the  speech  of  Mr.  Clark  and  others  in  the  same  debate. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  Ill 

parts  of  the  Union,  chiefly  in  the  great  cities  of  the  North, 
and  to  some  extent  also  to  foreigners,  at  prices  ranging  from 
eight  and  ten  to  twenty  cents  per  acre,  resulting  in  immense 
aggregate  gain.  Thus  did  the  original  grantees  (except  the  few 
who  took  back  their  money  and  gave  up  their  interest  in  the 
land  under  the  Rescinding  Act,)  achieve  a  complete  triumph, 
carrying  out  successfully  their  programme,  which  was  neither 
more  nor  less  than  by  fraud  and  corruption  to  purchase 
these  lands  from  the  State  for  a  mere  trifle,  and  then  quick- 
ly to  shift  them  off  at  a  huge  profit  upon  others,  whom  it 
was  their  plan  to  leave  to  their  fate,  whatever  it  might  be, 
of  danger,  loss  or  ruin.  The  Yazoo  speculation  is  seen  con- 
sequently standing  before  us  bristling  with  successful  fraud, 
at  both  ends :  Fraud,  first,  in  the  purchase  from  the  State, 
and  then  fraud  again  in  the  sales  by  the  original  purchasers 
to  the  various  secondary  buyers. 

But  it  was  not  merely  the  above  mentioned  Report  and 
Resolutions  in  Congress  which  Washington's  message  called 
forth.  The  two  Houses,  incensed  at  what  Georgia  had  done, 
felt  at  the  first  moment  a  strong  impulse  to  question  her 
title,  and  that  of  the  speculating  Companies  derived  from 
her,  and  anticipating  that  the  adverse  Spanish  title  would 
now  soon  devolve  on  the  United  States  by  treaty  for  what- 
ever it  might  be  worth,  determined  to  probe  to  the  bottom 
the  right  of  the  State  to  the  territory  she  had  so  unpatriot- 
ically  alienated  to  a  knot  of  speculators  in  preference  to  the 
United  States.  To  this  end,  at  the  very  close  of  the  session 
a  joint  resolution  was  adopted  directing  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, Charles  Lee,  to  prepare  and  present  to  the  next  Con- 
gress a  report  on  the  title  of  Georgia.  That  eminent  law 
officer  took  abundant  time  and  was  at  the  utmost  pains, 
and  at  length,  on  the  29th  of  April,  1796,  after  more  than 
a  year  had  elapsed  from  the  date  of  the  call  upon  him,  and 
six  months  after  the  Spanish  cession  to  the  United  States 
by  the  treaty  of  San  Lorenzo,  he  presented  his  report,  which 
is  now  to  be  found  in  the  American  State  Papers,  filling 
more  than  thirty  great  folio  pages — forming  a  fine  specimen 


112  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  the  thorough  and  faithful  manner  in  which  the  public 
men  of  that  day  performed  their  duty.*  Georgia,  in  partic- 
ular, is  under  obligations  to  Mr.  Attorney  General  Lee  for 
his  laborious  research  and  for  the  great  mass  of  interesting 
documentary  materials  relating  to  her  infantine  period, 
which,  by  ransacking  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  he  was 
enabled  to  bring  together.  These  materials,  upon  being 
studied,  demonstrated  instead  of  damaging  the  title  of 
Georgia  from  Great  Britain,  and  placed  it  indubitably  above 
that  which  the  United  States  got  from  Spain  by  the  treaty 
of  San  Lorenzo. 

There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  call  on  the  Attorney 
General  on  this  occasion  was  caused  by  an  opinion  prevalent 
to  some  extent  in  Congress  that  the  title  of  Georgia,  derived 
from  Great  Britain,  and  now  nefariously  conveyed  to  the 
Yazooists,  would,  upon  investigation,  have  to  give  way  be- 
fore what  they  supposed  would  be  the  better  title  the  Uni- 
ted States  were  expecting  soon  to  acquire  from  Spain,  and 
that  thus  the  title  of  the  Yazooists,  acquired  from  Georgia, 
would  be  superseded.  This  opinion  was  not  unfrequently 
expressed  in  debate  and  in  the  reports  of  committees.  Nor 
was  it  an  opinion  merely :  With  many  there  was  a  strong 
wish  to  the  same  effect, — so  intense  was  the  resentment 
against  the  Yazoo  sale,  and  so  powerful  the  desire  to  defeat 
it.  But  both  the  opinion  and  the  wish  were  soon  seen  by 
everybody  to  be  utterly  inadmissible  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  diplomatic  fact  that  the  title  of  Georgia  constituted 
the  only  ground  of  claim  and  right  advanced  by  our  country 
in  its  great  territorial  strife  with  Spain,  and  being  thus  the 
banner  under  which  that  strife  was  waged  and  won  on  our 
side,  could  not  now  by  any  possibility  be  hauled  down  and 
set  at  naught  by  the  United  States  in  the  very  face  of  the 
great  territorial  victory  they  had  just  achieved  under  it. 

*  American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  I,  Pages  34,  69. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  113 

SECTION  VII. 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  this  .long  and  intricate 
drama,  at  which  the  curtain  drops  for  several  years  on  the 
General  Government  and  Georgia  re-enters  on  the  scene,  to 
become  this  time  the  fierce  assailant  and  undoer  of  the  mon- 
strous villainy  that  had  been  so  recently  enacted  in  her  Leg- 
islature and  under  her  name.  Though  the  hue  and  cry 
against  the  enormity  was  first  raised,  as  we  have  seen,  at 
the  Federal  Capital  and  by  the  Federal  Executive  and  Con- 
gress, yet  here  at  home,  the  shock  was  far  the  deepest  and 
most  violent.  It  was  here  the  crime  struck  with  its  most 
heinous,  deadly  effect,  despoiling  the  State  at  once  of  a  vast 
public  property  and  her  precious  public  honor, — not  only 
robbing  her  of  invaluable  territories,  but  doing  it  under  cir- 
cumstances that  brought  imputation  on  her  national  patriot- 
ism and  magnanimity, — doing  it,  moreover,  by  debauching 
her  trusted  public  servants,  whom  she  had  chosen  to  be  the 
guardians,  not  betrayers  of  her  high  interests  and  her  fair 
fame.  Thus  had  that  crime  wounded  her  in  a  point  dearer 
than  landed  or  monied  wealth,  tarnished  her  reputation,  de- 
filed at  its  young  fountain  head  the  eternal  stream  of  her 
history  and  polluted  the  waters  mingled  with  which  her 
name  was  to  go  down  to  future  times,  and  especially  to  her 
own  children  forever. 

I  design  not  recounting  minutely  the  oft  told,  familiar 
story  of  the  State's  strong  sovereign  action  in  resentment  and 
redress  of  this  celebrated  wrong.  That  story,  at  ODCC  simple 
and  striking,  has  ever  been  so  much  an  attractive  theme  to 
writers  and  talkers  as  to  have  become  thread  bare  and  to  re- 
coil from  any  thing  like  a  labored  handling  now.  Prelimi- 
narily, however,  it  should  be  told  that  the  first  effect  of  the 
sale  on  the  mass  of  the  people  was  stunning  stupefaction  and 
amazement.  They  found  difficulty  in  believing  that  the 
deed  had  been  done.  The  entire  failure  of  the  measure  be- 
fore the  preceding  Legislature  and  the  entire  quietude  and 
silence  in  regard  to  it  that  had  ensued,  had  rendered  them 


114  THE   YAZOO    FRAUD. 

unsuspecting  and  secure,  and  they  had  let  the  subject  pass 
off  from  their  minds  and  it  occurred  not  to  them  that  it  had 
not  been  equally  dropt  by  the  speculating  Companies. 
They  were  unaware  that  these  latter  had  been  during 
the  whole  interim  stealthily,  yet  industriously,  at  work  every 
where,  both  in  and  out  of  Georgia,  and  had  really  gotten  into 
their  hands  the  complete  mastery  of  the  game  before  they 
again  came  out  to  light  and  began  to  take  open  steps  to- 
wards their  object.  It  is  wonderful  what  a  profound  privacy 
they  had  succeeded  in  maintaining  in  their  widely  ramified 
operations,  a  privacy  kept  up  to  the  last  possible  moment. 
Even  after  their  b:ll  was  introduced,  there  was  no  notoriety 
beyond  Augusta  and  its  neighborhood  that  such  a  measure 
was  on  hand.  No  publicity  had  been  given  to  it,  no  an- 
nouncement made  of  it  by  any  name  or  title  pointing  to 
its  character  or  contents.  A  lying  title  concealed  its  true 
nature  which  consequently  was  not  indicated  by  anything  on 
the  journal  of  either  House  or  in  the  newspapers,  which 
were  wont  to  give  only  lists  of  the  titles  of  the  bills  intro- 
duced. 

The  consequence  of  all  which  was  that  the  people  awoke 
to  find  themselves  outraged  and  robbed  without  having  had 
any  notice  of  the  design  or  warning  of  their  danger  or  the 
least  chance  of  outcry  and  resistance.  At  first  they  were 
likewise  ignorant  of  the  turpitude  of  the  means  by  which 
the  wrong  had  been  effected,  or  what  strangers,  or  who 
among  themselves  except  the  guilty  members  of  the  Legis- 
lature and  the  few  grantees  named  in  the  act,  were  concern- 
ed in  its  perpetration.  They  soon,  however,  became  better 
and  bitterly  enlightened.  The  astounding  discovery  broke 
upon  them  that  the  cancerous  fibres  of  the  monstrous  transac- 
tion pervaded  not  only  the  State  but  the  United  States,  and 
embraced  they  knew  not  how  many  powerful  and  influential 
names  and  shrewd,  unscrupulous  characters.  They  were 
especially  struck  with  the  successful  pains  that  had  been 
taken  to  enlist  in  its  interest  all  the  men  in  Georgia  who 
were  prominent  enough  to  attract  the  base  courtship  of  the 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  115 

Yazooists  and  pliant  enongh  to  become  their  tools  and  ac- 
complices. Most  of  those  to  whom  the  people  would  natur- 
ally have  looked  to  become  their  leaders  and  to  champion 
their  cause  in  this  great  emergency,  were  either  bought  up 
and  subsidized  on  the  side  of  the  enemy  by  their  own  inte- 
rests or  paralyzed  by  their  relations  to  interested  parties. 
Besides,  not  many  men  were  there,  indeed,  who  were  at  all 
competent  to  such  leadership  and  championship  as  was 
wanted.  Nothing  short  of  the  highest  courage  and  the 
greatest  energy,  reputation,  talents  and  self  devotion  could 
constitute  the  necessary  qualifications.  He  who  should  give 
himself  to  the  people's  service  on  this  occasion  had  need  of 
a  charmed  life  and  an  invincible  soul,  as  well  as  of  a  con- 
centrated and  commanding  mind :  For  assuredly  it  was  a 
lion's  den  he  would  have  to  enter,  a  liery  furnance  through 
which  he  would  have  to  pass.  And  by  universal  concession 
there  was  but  one  man  in  the  State,  in  all  respects  equal 
and  fitted  to  the  exigency,  and  who  at  the  same  time  had 
kept  himself  pure  and  intact,  and  but  for  the  extraordinary 
self-abnegation  and  lofty,  patriotic  intrepidity  and  devotion 
of  that  one  man,  the  people  would  have  been  without  a 
leader  and  champion,  such  as  the  case  imperatively  required. 
That  man  was  General  James  Jackson,  the  noblest  and 
most  admirable  name  in  the  history  of  Georgia,  then  a 
member  of  the  United  States  Senate  as  Mr.  Few's  succes- 
sor and  General  Gunn's  colleague. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  can  open  the  part  acted  by  this  ex- 
traordinary man  against  the  Yazoo  Fraud  better  than  by 
recalling  a  personal  reminiscence  of  my  own  full  half  a  cen- 
tury old  and  more.  It  was  at  Hancock  Superior  Court,  at 
April  term,  1823, — a  date  at  which  the  Governor  was  still 
chosen  by  the  Legislature,  and  as  the  name  of  one  of  those 
understood  to  be  aspiring  to  the  office  was  to  be  found  in  the 
old  public  documents  as  the  owner  of  a  few  Yazoo  subshares, 
conversation  began  to  be  somewhat  turned  to  the  subject  of 
the  Yazoo  Fraud  and  young  men,  especially,  were  keen  in- 
quirers. It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  a  number 


116  THK  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

of  the  junior  members  of  the  bar  were  sitting  one  night 
after  supper  in  the  large,  pleasant  room,  up  stairs,  which 
our  good  host,  William  G.  Springer,  whose  soul  contended 
with  his  body,  which  should  be  biggest,  had  assigned  to  us 
across  the  street, — when  we  were  agreeably  startled  by 
Judge  Dooly*  entering  to  pay  us  a  visit, — a  courtesy  on  the 
part  of  the  Judges  not  uncommon  in  those  days.  The 
Judge,  whose  rniud  was  a  rich  treasury  of  the  miscellanies 
of  Georgia,  past  and  present,  and  whose  manner  of  saying 
everything  was  singularly  plain,  condensed  and  incisive, 
was  soon  drawn  out  on  the  Yazoo  Fraud.  My  recollection 
has  ever  since  been  perfectly  distinct  of  the  following  remark 
made  by  him  in  the  course  of  his  conversing  :  "  The  peo- 
ple," he  said,  "  were  generally  against  the  Yazoo  sale,  but 
the  rich  and  leading  men  were  mostly  for  it,  because,  in 
most  instances,  they  or  some  of  their  friends  or  relations 
were  interested  in  it.  The  people  wanted  to  get  rid  of  it, 
but  did  not  know  how  to  do  it.  They  had  nobody  to  lead 
and  contrive  for  them,  and  Gen.  Jackson  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  United  States  Senate  and  came  home  and  ran  for  the 
Legislature  in  Chatham  county,  and  was  elected  to  lead  and 
contrive  for  the  people." 

Such  were  the  very  words  of  Judge  Dooley  to  us  young 
men  about  Gen.  Jackson — words  which  struck  me  greatly 
and  imprinted  themselves  indelibly,  enkindling  my  mind 
with  a  most  vivid  and  exalted  conception  of  the  illustrious 
character,  t)  whom  they  related  and  making  him  from  that 
moment  a  study  and  almost  an  idolatry  to  me.  The  annals 
of  mankind  teem  with  the  names  of  heroes,  martyrs,  self- 
sacrificers,  martial,  moral,  religious — men  who  have  held 
their  lives  and  their  ease  as  nothing  in  the  scale  against 
glory,  duty,  honor ;  and  yet  among  them  all  I  am  unable 

*  Whoever  may  feel  curious  as  to  what  sort  of  physiognomy  belonged  to  that 
very  striking  man,  John  M.  Dooly,  long  the  Judge  of  the  Northern  Circuit^ 
the  greatest  wit  as  all  agreed,  and  generally  conceded  to  have  been  also  the 
greatest  judicial  intellect  of  his  day,  may  see  a  wonderfully  true  likeness  of 
him  (Adonised,  however,)  in  the  portrait  of  the  celebrated  painter,  Gilbert 
Stuart,  in  the  1st  Volume  of  the  American  Portrait  Gallery. 


THE  YA7X)0  FRAUD.  117 

to  recollect  any  instance  parallel  and  fully  up  to  this  con- 
duct of  Gen.  Jackson  so  pointedly  stated  by  Judge  Dooly, 
so  barely  and  sleepily  mentioned  by  history.  Certainly  our 
own  country,  vast  and  diversified  as  it  is,  has  hitherto  fur- 
nished nothing  equal  to  it  or  like  it,  nor  does  it  promise  ac- 
cording to  present  symptoms  ever  to  do  so.  Does  any  man 
believe  that  there  is  now  to  be  found  in  all  the  low  minded 
ranks  of  power  and  of  the  public  service  a  single  bosom  in 
which  even  a  dormant  possibility  dwells  of  such  sublime, 
self-denying,  unselfish  patriotism?  What  United  States 
Senator  would  now  resign  his  seat  with  yet  four  years  to  run 
and  come  homa  and  seek  the  humblest  Representative  post 
known  to  our  system  of  Government, — and  all  for  the  sake  of 
the  people  arid  their  rights  and  vindication  ? 

Gen.  Jackson,  however,  had  given  some  evidence  on  a 
previous  occasion  in  his  life  of  his  capability  of  this  neplns 
ultra  of  public  virtue.  In  1V88,  when  but  thirty  years  old, 
he  had  been  elected  to  the  office  of  Governor  of  the  State,  and 
declined  accepting  it  upon  the  ground  of  lacking  age  and  ex- 
perience. It  was  in  full  keeping  with  this  act  of  noble,  pa- 
triotic modesty  and  humility  that  he  should  afterwards  in 
1*795,  have  so  subjugated  an  ambition  of  the  most  ardent 
and  lofty  type  as  to  give  up  the  highest  and  become  a  candi- 
date for  the  lowest  place  in  political  service,  because  he  be- 
held his  beloved  Georgia  in  a  mighty  trouble  in  which  she 
needed  the  sacrifice  from  him,  and  in  which  by  making  it  he 
could  do  so  much  more  and  better  for  her,  although  at  the 
cost  of  doing  so  much  less  and  worse  for  himself. 

For  well  he  knew  not  only  what  he  was  surrendering,  but 
also  to  what  he  was  exposing  himself  when  he  magnani- 
mously resolved  to  descend  from  the  high  round  of  the  polit- 
ical ladder  to  which  he  had  climbed  down  to  the  very  bot- 
tom, there  to  scuffle  and  fight,  "lead  and  contrive  for  the 
people,"  both  against  all  the  bad  men  who  had  combined, 
and  all  the  good  men  who  had  been  misled,  to  become  the 
State's  betrayers  and  robbers,  or  the  supporters  of  its  betray- 
ers and  robbers.  He  knew  what  enemies  he  was  necessitat- 


118  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

ing  himself  to  make  and  how  deeply  they  would  he  enven- 
omed against  him,  and  that  their  thirst  for  his  hlood  would 
be  only  less  keen  than  their  greed  for  the  prey  he  was  "bent 
on  snatching  from  their  grasp.  He  knew,  in  fine,  that  from 
the  first  moment  to  the  last  of  the  work  on  which  he  was 
entering,  he  would  have  to  carry  his  life  in  his  hand,  although 
the  ultimate  fate  that  awaited  him  lay  concealed  from  hu- 
man view,  and  none  could  foresee  that  a  life  so  dear  and  in- 
valuable was  destined  to  pass  away,  alas  !  so  prematurely — 
a  slow-wasting  sacrifice,  long  offered  up  on  the  altar  of  Geor- 
gia's interest  and  honor.* 

From  the  first  Gen.  Jackson  had  been  outspoken  and  ve- 
hement in  his  denunciations  of  the  sale.,  arid  had  contributed 
greatly  to  rousing  the  popular  rage  against  it.  This, — even 
before  he  had  doffed  his  Senatorial  robes  for  a  candidacy  for 
the  State  Legislature,  and  thereby  formally  entered  the  lists 
as  the  people's  leader  and  champion  against  a  host  of  powerful 
and  unscrupulous  men  whose  mortal  fear  and  hatred  he 
thenceforward  incurred.  The  people  at  once  hailed  him  and 
rallied  to  him,  and  it  was  not  long  before  under  his  brave 

*Col.  Benton,  in  his  Abridgement  of  the  Congressional  Debates,  Vol.  TII. 
twice  comments  upon  Gen.  Jackson  and  the  cause  of  his  death.  At  p.  338  is 
the  following  note  at  the  close  of  the  debate  on  the  Yazoo  Claims : 

"Mr.  Randolph  was  the  great  opposer  of  these  claims  in  Congress  and  Gen- 
|    eral  Jackson  their  great  opposer  in  Georgia.      It  was  he,  who  aroused  the 
I     feeling  that  overthrew  the  General  Assembly  who   made  the  grant,  and  elected 
I     the  Legislature  which  annulled  the   Act,  and  burned  the  record  of  it.     He   was 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  with  James  Gunn,  the  Senator  alluded  to  in 
the  debate  as  being  engaged  in  the   Fraud,  and   lost  his   life  in  the  last  of  the 
many  duels  which  his  opposition  to  that  measure  brought  upon  him." 

And  again  at  page  4(35,  in  a  note  to  the  proceedings  in  Congress  on  the  occa- ' 
sion  of  Gen.  Jackson's  death,  March  19th,  1806,  Col.  Benton  says  among  other 
things  :  "He  was  a  man  of  marked  character,  h'gh  principle  and  strong  temper- 
ament— honest,  patriotic,  brave,  hating  tyranny,  oppression  and  meanness  in 
in  every  form  ;  the  bold  denouncer  of  crime  in  high  as  well  as  in  low  places; 
a  ready  speaker,  and  as  ready  with  his  pistol  as  his  tongue,  and  involved 
in  many  duels  on  account  of  his  hot  opposition  to  criminal  measures.  The  de- 
feat of  the  Yazoo  Fraud  was  the  most  signal  act  of  his  Legislative  life,  for 
which  he  paid  the  penalty  of  his  life,  dying  of  wounds  received  in  the  last  o* 
the  many  duels,  which  his  undaunted  attacks  upon  that  measure  brought  upon 
him." 


THE  YAZCO  FRAUD.  119 

auspices  and  their  fierce  enthusiasm  the  battle  into  which 
they  had  plunged  was  substantially  won.  For  the  storm 
quickly  overspread  the  State  with  a  violence  that  appalled  the 
Yazooiats  and  their  myrmydons,  and  they  everywhere  slunk 
and  cowered  before  it  long  before  the  election  day  came. 
But  still  Jackson's  hot  and  heavy  blows  were  not  mitigated, 
nor  did  the  people's  vengeful  energy  slacken.  It  was  more 
than  even  the  bravo,  Gunn,  could  brave  or  bear.  He  became 
utterly  paralyzed  and  annihilated,  as  it  were,  by  the  intense, 
crushing  detestation  of  which  he  was  sensible  of  having  be- 
come the  object,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  him  whatever  ex- 
cept that  he  continued  to  occupy  to  the  last  day  of  his  new, 
basely  gotten  terra,  the  seat  in  the  National  Senate,  which 
he  at  once  obscurely  filled  and  flagrantly  dishonored.  The 
bribed  Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  Legislature  met 
from  their  constituents  a  fate  similar  to  that  of  their  brib- 
ing, bullying  chief.  The  tempest  of  public  indignation 
against  them  was  such  as  made  not  a  few  of  them  tremble 
for  their  personal  safety  on  their  return  home.  But  their 
fears  were  groundless.  Such  was  the  orderly,  law  abiding 
character  of  our  ancestors,  except  in  cases  where  society  is 
obliged  to  resort  to  the  ''higher  law"  for  its  purgation  and 
protection,  that,  content  with  the  sort  of  penalty  which 
God  inflicted  on  Cain,  they  simply  branded  their  culprit 
legislators  and  consigned  them  to  political  death  and  social 
ostracism  and  infamy. 

In  making  this  statement  I  am  not  unaware  that  a  sur- 
mise older  than  my  earliest  recollection,  indeed,  older  than 
myself,  long  existed  in  some  minds,  making  the  case  of 
Roberts  Thomas,  the  recreant  Senator  from  Hancock,  whose 
high-priced  vote  turned  the  scale  in  favor  of  the  Yazoo  sale, 
an  exception  to  this  eulogium  on  the  people's  moderation. 
But  even  on  the  worst  supposition  anybody  ever  entertained 
(which  was  that  Jonathan  Adams,  or  some  other  person, 
whose  dark  secret  was  never  suspected,  followed  him  from 
Hancock  in  his  flight  and  overtook  and  assassinated  him  in 
South  Carolina)  it  was  but  the  crime  of  an  individual  to 


120  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

which  the  public  was  in  no  way  party  or  privy.  An  uncon- 
cealed, formal  flogging,  "hugging  a  sapling,"*  meanwhile, 
or  some  other  still  lighter  corporal  punishment  and  disgrace 
was  all  he  ever  had  to  fear  (and  it  was  this  fear  that  made 
him  flee)  from  his  incensed  constituents  who  never  dreamed 
of  anything  harsher  against  him  than  his  ignorainous  ex- 
pulsion from  their  midst.  Not  a  man  in  Hancock  ever  har- 
bored such  a  thought  as  that  of  pursuing  and  assassinating 
him  after  his  flight,  f  The  most  probable  theory  of  his 
murder  is  that  it  was  procured  by  some  arch  fiend  among 
the  Yazooists.  Thomas'  vacilation,  timidity  and  extortion 
had  already  excited  their  displeasure  and  uneasiness  before 
he  gave  that  vote  for  them,  which  they  were  obliged  to  have 
at  any  price,  because  if  given  the  other  way  it  would  be  fa- 
tal to -them.  His  vote  obtained  and  the  law  passed,  their 
uneasiness  about  him  was  still  kept  alive  by  his  indiscre- 
tions before  he  left  Augusta  and  by  his  coward  weakness 
after  he  got  home.  And  when  soon  afterwards  he  took  to 
flight,  thereby  proclaiming  not  only  his  fears,  but,  as  it  was 


*Sallard's  Jlffidavit,  American  Stale  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  I,  p.  149. 

fBoth  White  in  his  Statistics  of  Georgia,  page  50,  and  Gov.  Gilmer  in  his 
book,  entitled  "Georgians,"  take  it  for  granted  that  Thomas  met  his  late  from 
the  hands  of  some  of  his  constituents.  Gov.  Gilmer,  though  not  naming  Jona- 
than Adams,  indicates  him  clearly  to  every  Hancock  man  as  the  assassin. 
The  logic  which  inculpated  Adams,  ran  in  this  wise  :  "The  Adamses  were  a 
strong  charactered  and  very  leading,  patriotic  family  in  the  county  and  were 
particularly  indignant  at  Thomas'  Yazoo  vote  and  against  Thomas  himself  for  it. 
Thomas  fled  and  was  assassinated.  After  which  Jona.  Adams  fell  into  bad  health 
and  became  a  great  hypochondriac  for  a  number  of  years.  Therefore,  some 
people  wondered  whether  he  had  not  something  dreadful  on  his  conscience  and 
whether  that  something  was  not  the  killing  of  Thomas."  Such  was  the  syllo- 
gism that  I  heard  occasionally  whispered  in  Hancock  in  my  boyhood, — of 
which  it  will  be  seen  that  the  premises  being  weak,  the  conclusion  is  a  mere 
doubt  or  wonder.  By  the  time  it  reached  Oglethorpe  county  it  must  have  be- 
come a  positive  belief  or  Gov.  Gilmer  would  not  have  put  it  in  his  book  as  a 
fact.  This  sort  of  reasoning  was  liable,  however,  to  refutation  and  was  actu- 
ally refuted  by  Adams'  eventual  recovery  of  his  health,  mental  and  physical. 

Gov.  Troup  was  in  Congress  during  the  Yazoo  discussions,  and  in  a  speech 
quoted  by  Gen.  Harden  in  his  Life  of  him,  allndes  to  the  suspicion  that  Thomas' 
assassination  was  contrived  by  the  Yazooists.  Such  is  my  recollection,  but  I 
have  not  the  book  at  hand. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  121 

argued,  his  and  their  guilt  also,  which  they  were  solicitous 
should  not  be  noised  abroad,  at  least  until  they  should  have 
time  to  sell  off  their  ill-acquired  lands, — under  the  im- 
pulse of  malignant  fear,  fury  and  precaution,  they  contrived 
his  death  by  the  hand  of  some  hired  assassin  who  dogged 
him  from  Augusta  beyond  doubt.  For  it  was  the  very  night 
after  passing  through  that  city  that  he  was  killed.  And 
thus  was  stilled  forever  that  tongue  from  which  alone  they 
had  fears  of  the  early  betrayal  of  the  yet  secret  crime  of  the 
corruption  they  had  used,  and  the  continued  secrecy  of  which 
long  enough  for  their  purposes  they  madly  hoped  might  be 
secured  by  the  prompt  taking  off  of  one  whom  they  regard- 
ed with  suspicion  and  fear  as  having  it  in  his  power  and  as 
being  weakly  liable  to  make  damaging  disclosures  against 
them.  So  does  crime  breed  crime,  the  progeny  often,  more 
hideous  than  the  parent,  as  all  prose  and  verse,  all  history 
and  observation  have  always  proclaimed. 

But  although  there  was  so  much  popular  excitement  which 
found  expression  through  public  meetings,  the  presentments 
of  Grand  Juries,  the  voice  of  the  Press,  and  by  petitions  and 
memorials  from  every  quarter  which,  numerously  signed, 
were  sent  up  to  a  Constitutional  Convention  about  to  be  held 
at  Louisville  in  the  ensuing  month  of  May,*  yet  the  people 
never  fully  understood  how  bad  and  desperate  the  state  of 
things  was,  till  after  that  Body  had  met  and  proved  itself 
false  to  all  their  expectations.  Then  it  was  that  the 
veil  was  entirely  lifted,  disclosing  a  spectacle  for  which  they 
were  unprepared,  the  spectacle  of  the  Convention  itself  act- 
ing as  an  accessory  to  the  Yazoo  Fraud  and  playing  strong- 
ly into  its  hands.  This  great  and  new  fangled  treachery, 
more  infamous  than  that  of  the  Yazoo  Legislature  in  propor- 
tion as  a  Constitutional  Convention  is  a  Body  more  exalted 
and  more  highly  trusted  than  an  ordinary  Legislative  As- 
sembly, has  long  since  died  out  of  the  minds  of  men.  But 
it  becomes  necessary  even  at  this  late  date  to  disinter  it  from 

*Benton's  Jbridg.  Debates,  Vol.  Ill, p.  325.      Whites  Statistic*,  p.  51. 


122  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

its  long  oblivion  as  forming  a  part  not  less  material  than  re- 
pulsive of  the  odious  history  through  which  we  are  wading. 
The  Convention,-  then,  of  May,  179o,  was  the  child  of  the 
Constitution  of  1789,  a  Constitution  rather  hurriedly  gotten 
up  by  our  forefathers  to  meet  the  advent  of  the  newly  launched 
Federal  system  of  the  United  States  which  Georgia  was  among 
the  first  to  greet  and  accept.  Care,  however,  was  wisely 
taken  by  the  State's  Constitution  makers  of  '89  to  insert  in 
their  hasty  framework  of  government  a  provision  for  its  own 
early  revision  and  emendation.  That  provision  required 
that  at  the  election  of  members  of  the  Legislature  in  1794, 
delegates  should  also  be  chosen,  three  from  each  county,  to 
meet  at  such  time  and  place  as  the  Legislature  should  ap- 
point to  deliberate  and  determine  what  alterations  and  amend- 
ments should  be  made  in  the  Constitution.  It  thus  happen- 
ed that  this  election  of  members  of  the  Convention  took  place 
at  the  same  time  and  by  the  same  constituencies  and  under 
all  the  same  circumstances  and  influences  with  the  election 
of  the  members  of  the  Yazoo  Legislature,  and  the  specula- 
tors were  altogether  too  shrewd  a  set  of  men  not  to  see  that 
it  was  best  to  have  the  Convention  as  well  as  the  Legislature 
on  their  side.  They  took  their  measures  accordingly. 
Great  though  quiet  and  secret  pains  were  used  to  pack  the 
Convention  with  their  friends  and  with  persons  thought  to 
be  accessible  to  the  influences  they  could  bring  to  bear. 
They  wanted,  too,  at  least  one  master  mind  and  commanding 
character  there  to  watch  over  their  interests,  to  lead  and 
manage  for  them  and  to  keep  things  in  such  a  channel  as 
would  be  for  their  advantage.  They  found  and  returned 
such  a  person  in  George  Walker,  of  Richmond  county. 
This  gentleman  ranked  among  the  first  men  in  the  State  for 
talents,  address,  popularity  and  high  future  promise,  and 
was,  by  all  odds,  the  very  foremost  of  the  Georgians,  whom 
the  Yazooists  had  succeeded  in  enlisting  in  their  scheme. 
lie  was  one  of  their  leading  partners  and  his  name  stands 
out  with  those  of  James  Gunn  and  Matthew  McAllister, 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  123 

printed  in  the  Act  as  one  of  the  original  Grantees  of  the 
Georgia  Company. 

Having  such  advantages  as  these  on  their  side  in  the  com- 
position of  the  Convention  and  perfect  concert  and  under- 
standing among  themselves  besides,  the  Yazooists  found  it 
not  difficult  to  carry  things  their  own  way  in  that  body  over 
the  not  very  small  sprinkling  of  good  and  true,  but  not 
particularly  effective  men,  who  were  their  fellow  members. 
And  their  way  and  ivish  ivas  to  favor  and  protect,  the  Yazoo 
speculation  and  save  it  from  harm.  Ignoring  almost  entirely 
the  high  duty  of  amending  the  Constitution  for  which  they 
had  been  called  together,  they  devoted  themselves  to  aiding 
and  screening  the  great  Fraud.  Their  whole  doings  are  dis- 
tent with  internal  evidence  of  this  aim.  It  is  apparent  in 
what  they  did  and  in  what  they  did  not  do.  There  is  noth- 
ing which  the  speculators  could  have  asked  or  wanted  which 
either  through  the  action  or  non-action  of  the  Convention 
they  did  not  get ;  whilst  of  all  that  the  people  asked  for 
and  expected,  not  a  whit  was  granted  or  done.  What  was 
most  desirable  for  the  Yazooists  was  plenty  of  undisturbed 
time  for  their  vast  and  scattered  operations  of  resale  of  their 
lands,  and  this  the  Convention  secured  to  them  as  far  as 
possible  by  changing  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature  from 
the  old  time,  the  first  Monday  in  November,  to  the  second 
Tuesday  in  January,  for  which  change  no  reason  can  be  im- 
agined except  to  give  the  Yazooists  more  than  two  full  ad- 
ditional months  to  work  off  their  lands  before  they  could  be 
overtaken  and  cut  down  by  the  dreaded  rescinding  vengeance 
of  another  and  purer  Legislature.  Thus  much  as  to  what 
the  Convention  did.  Still  more  strikingly  sinister  was  the 
character  of  what  it  refused  to  do.  To  it  as  the  most  com- 
petent and  all-potent  Body  known  to  our  political  system  as 
well  as  the  earliest  in  point  of  time  to  which  an  appeal 
could  be  made,  the  people  had  made  their  loud  appeals. 
Thither  they  had  sent  up  their  complaints  and  petitions, 
their  protests  and  fulminations  against  the  sale,  accompanied 
by  abundant  proofs  of  the  now  discovered  corrupt  means  by 


124  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

which  it  was  procured,  justly  regarding  the  Convention  as 
clothed  with  transcendent  powers  which  it  was  bound  to 
exercise  on  such  an  occasion.  But  these  supreme  servants 
of  the  people  literally  snubbed  their  masters,  taking  no  fur- 
ther notice  of  their  views,  wishes  and  demands  than  to  bundle 
them  up  and  devolve  them  in  a  mass  on  the  ensuing  Legis- 
lature* which  they  immediately  proceeded,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  to  put  off  two  months  longer  with  no  other  object  than 
to  put  this  stupendous  villainy  as  much  as  possible  beyond 
the  reach  of  its  arm.  But  not  only  did  the  Convention  thus 
refused  to  act  against  the  Yazoo  crime, — it  refused  even  to 
speak  against  it.  Not  the  slightest  whisper  of  denunciation 
or  disapproval  came  from  its  lips  ;  not  the  slightest  opinion 
was  breathed  against  it  or  the  manner  of  its  procurement. 
So  the  Yazooists  were  more  than  satisfied,  having  gotten  the 
utmost  they  wanted, — a  friendly  inactivity  and  silence, — a 
kind  refusal  to  do  or  say  aught  against  them,  and  also  a 
lengthened  period  of  time  for  working  out  their  programme 
of  disposing  of  their  lands  at  enriching  prices. 

Having  thus  extended  to  the  Yazooists  all  the  aid  it  could 
give,  indeed,  all  they  needed,  and  refused  to  say  or  do  aught 
to  their  prejudice,  the  measure  of  the  Convention's  shame 
was  full  enough,  even  though  it  had  not  been  guilty  of  the 
further  shameless  misdoing,  of  leaving  almost  untouched  the 
real  business  for  which  it  had  been  created,  and  coolly  de- 
volving the  same  on  another  Convention,  which,  for  that 
purpose  it  ordered  to  be  elected  in  1*797.  But  perhaps  we 
ought  to  be  rather  thankful  for  this  delinquency  of  the  Con- 
vention and  the  mode  it  adopted  of  making  amends  there- 
for: Since  to  this  cause  we  owe  a  better  work  than  could 
have  been  gotten  at  its  hands,  namely,  the  glorious  old  Con- 
stitution of  1*798.  the  time-honored  mental  product  of  the 
illustrious  Jackson  and  his  anti- Yazoo  compatriots,  under 
which  Georgia  long  grew  and  prospered,  still  clinging  to  it 
with  increasing  reverence  for  nearly  seventy  years  until 
finally  in  these  evil  latter  days  it  was,  to  her  eternal  sorrow, 

•Bentan'tJlb.,  Vol  3,^.325. 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  125 

overthrown  and  thrust  aside  by  a  conquering  despotism  and 
unreasoning  bayonets. 

When  the  great  disappointment  occasioned  by  the  above 
told  gross  infidelity  of  the  Convention  came  upon  the  people, 
when  they  saw  what  a  scurvy,  pernicious  trick  had  been 
played  off  on  them  from  that  high  quarter  and  perceived 
themselves  cheated,  wronged,  betrayed  at  every  turn,  first 
by  their  Legislature  and  then  by  their  Convention,  then  it 
was  that  their  fierce  indignation  rose  to  its  acme.  Then  it 
was  that  enraged  and  bewildered,  they  felt  intensely  the 
need  of  somebody  on  whom  they  could  repose  a  true  and 
boundless  trust,  on  whom  they  could  fully  rely  to  lead  and 
contrive  for  them,  to  conquer  and  crush  in  their  behalf  in 
this  matter.  Then  it  was  that  they  called  upon  their  most 
idolized  man,  Gen.  James  Jackson,  to  leave  his  proud  seat 
among  the  Conscript  Fathers  of  the  Union,  the  constitution- 
al counsellors  of  Washington,  and  to  come  at  once  to  their 
help  and  headship.  Then  it  was  that  with  a  sublime  alacrity 
and  devotion,  he  instantly  responded  to  a  call  which  his  own 
fiery  sentiments  and  denunciations  had  largely  inspired. 
Without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  resigned  his  Senatorship 
and  dismounting,  as  it  were,  from  the  equestrian  rank,  trode 
the  ground  once  more,  a  private  soldier,  merging  himself 
with  the  people  as  one  of  themselves  and  literally  fighting 
on  foot  in  their  midst  from  May  to  November,  to  which  time 
the  election  had  been  changed  by  the  recent  Convention. 
Behold  him  there  covered  with  dust,  assailed  by  hatred,  the 
target  of  the  enemy's  deadliest  aims  throughout  the  long 
canvass.  Behold  him,  "leading,  contriving  for  the  people," 
toiling  with  tongue  and  pen,  with  mind  and  body,  facing 
and  defying  every  danger,  devoting  himself  in  every  way, 
sparing  himself  in  none:  A  spectacle,  how  replete  with  all 
that  can  be  conceived  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful  in  politi- 
cal conduct !  His  work  was  done  fearlessly  and  thoroughly. 
His  spirit  pervaded  all  Georgia  and  entered  like  a  higher 
life  the  souls  of  her  people.  The  enemy  strived  at  first  to 
make  some  show  of  a  stand  against  him  and  his  brave  yeo- 


126  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

manry,  but  in  vain.  In  all  parts  of  the  State  the  victory 
was  complete  and  resulted  in  returning  him  arid  his 
friends  and  supporters  to  the  Legislature  hy  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  in  both  branches. 

Of  course,  in  that  Legislature  he  was  the  master  spirit — 
the  dictator  and  controller.  '  But  not  much 'of  study  or  effort 
was  needed  from  him  there.  Execution  alone  was  the  watch- 
word and  .work.  "What  had  to  be  done  was  already  prefixed 
and  pronounced  by  the  people  at  the  polls,  rendering  the 
duty  and  action  of  their  Representatives  as  plain,  simple 
and  unobstructed  as  it  was  grand,  imposing  and  important. 
That  duty  was  to  repeal  the  Yazoo  Act,  to  annul  and  rescind 
the  Yazoo  Sale  as  unconstitutional,  fraudulent  and  void,  a 
huge  treachery,  a  heinous  conspiracy  of  the  buyers  and  sellers 
against  the  people,  the  offspring  of  bribery  and  corruption. 
This  duty  upon  full  and  convincing  proofs  laid  before  them, 
they  unflinchingly  performed.  Whilst  the  State  was  thus  as- 
asserting  and  enforcing  her  unaltered  ownership  of  the  vast 
territories  of  which  it  had  been  sought  to  despoil  her,  she  by 
the  same  Act  disavowed  all  claim  to  the  vile  purchase  money 
that  had  been  thrust  into  her  Treasury  and  directed  it  to  be 
restored  to  those  from  whom  it  came  or  to  whom  it  might 
belong.  Moreover,  to  give  the  greater  emphasis  to  her 
sovreign  fiat  of  condemnation  and  annulment,  she  ordered 
every  vestige  of  the  accursed  transaction  to  be  obliterated 
from  her  records  and  the  huge,  pretentious  enrollment  of  the 
Act  itself  to  be  given  to  the  fiarnes,  consecrated  although  it 
was  by  accumulated  high  and  solemn  signatures  and  by  the 
great  Seal  of  Georgia  pendant  in  massive  wax.  The  high, 
unexampled,  damnatory  sentence  was  duly  carried  into  exe- 
cution under  the  broad,  bright  sky,  on  the  beautiful  State 
House  square,  at  Louisville,  the  new  seat  of  Government,  in 
the  presence  of  the  Governor  and  Legislature  and  a  mighty 
assemblage  of  the  people.  And  according  to  a  tradition, 
which  cannot  de  doubted,  for  it  has  descended  to  us  uncon- 
tradicted  in  a  continuous  current  from  that  period  to  the 
present  day,  a  holy,  religious  eclat,  significant  of  the  Divine 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  127 

displeasure  on  the  great  iniquity,  was  shed  over  the  scene  by- 
drawing  down  the  consuming  fire  from  heaven  with  a  sun- 
glass before  that  immense  and  imposing  multitude  of  wit- 
nessing eyes. 

SECTION  VIII. 

It  was  on  the  13th  of  February,  1796,  that  this  crushing 
blow  was  struck.  After  it  a  long  pause  ensued,  during 
which  the  new  Yazooists  stood  still  grasping  their  scrip, 
awaiting  an  event  which  they  soon  began  to  foresee, — and 
which,  upon  its  happening,  would  at  once  put  a  more  hope- 
ful face  on  their  now  ruined  affairs.  This  event,  alike  fore- 
seen and  wished  for  by  them,  was  the  same  that  the  origi- 
nal speculators  had  so  long  deprecated  and  thwarted, 
namely,  the  cession  by  Georgia  to  the  United  States,  of  all 
her  Western  territory,  including  these  very  Yazoo  lands : 
A  cession  which  the  present  claimants  very  well  knew 
would,  whilst  carrying  the  lands  over  to  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, carry  them  at  the  same  time  cum  onere,  loaded 
with  any  and  all  claims  to  which  they  had  previously  be- 
come subject, — their  own,  the  Yazoo  claims,  among  the  rest. 
An  immediate  result  consequently  of  the  cession  would  be 
the  thronging  of  the  Yazoo  claimants  to  the  Federal  capital, 
and  their  becoming  suitors  to  the  Federal  Government  for 
the  settlement  of  their  claims. 

But  although  such  future  cession  to  the  United  States  un- 
doubtedly became  a  foregone  conclusion  in  all  minds  quickly 
after  Georgia's  annulment  of  the  Yazoo  sale,  yet  more  than 
two  years  elapsed  before  the  first  step  towards  it  was  taken, 
before  any  proposal  or  overture  was  made  from  either  side. 
This  delay  arose  from  the  fact  that  our  Legislature  in  1790, 
among  other  denunciations  of  the  Yazoo  sale,  had  pro- 
nounced it  unconstitutional,  wholly  denying  the  competency 
of  the  Legislature  under  the  then  existing  Constitution  of 
the  State  to  alienate  her  Indian  domains.  It  was  a  clear 
corrollary  from  this  Legislative  pronouncement  that  no  au- 
thority existed  anywhere  among  us  either  to  offer  or  enter- 


128  THE  YAZOO  FRAUD. 

tain  a  proposition  for  such  alienation.  And  not  only  was 
there  no  competent  authority  for  the  purpose  then  existing 
in  the  State,  but  none  could  be  called  into  existence  earlier 
than  the  year  1798 — at  which  time  the  new  Constitutional 
Convention  ordered  by  that  faithless  one  of  May,  1795,  was 
to  be  held :  Until  the  holding  of  which,  therefore,  the 
State  had  no  alternative  but  to  remain  silent  and  inactive  on 
the  whole  subject  of  a  cession.  And  Congress  also,  in  de- 
ference to  the  aforesaid  disclaimer  of  power  by  our  Legisla- 
ture, observed  a  like  silence  and  inaction,  and  refrained  from 
any  suggestion  of  a  cession  until  after  the  Convention  had 
been  chosen  and  was  within  less  than  a  month  of  the  time 
of  its  assemblage.  Then  it  was  that  Congress  spoke,  and 
on  the  7th  of  April,  1798,  passed  an  Act  empowering  the 
President  of  the  United  States  to  appoint  three  Commission- 
ers, whose  duty,  among  other  things,  it  should  be  to  receive 
from  such  commissioners  as  should  be  appointed  on  the  part 
of  Georgia  any  proposals  for  the  relinquishrnent  or  cession 
of  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  territory  claimed  by  the 
State  lying  out  of  its  ordinary  jurisdiction. 

This  act  was  undoubtedly  passed  in  anticipation  of  the 
Convention's  soon  meeting,  and  in  the  confidence  that  that 
Body  would  receive  it  as  an  overture  for  a  cession  and  honor 
it  as  such  with  a  suitable  response.  Nor  was  this  confidence 
disappointed.  How  was  it  possible  it  should  have  been  ? 
For  of  that  Convention  the  noble  Jackson,  although  Gover- 
nor of  the  State  at  the  time,  was  a  member,  master  spirit 
there  too  as  in  the  anti-Yazoo  Legislature  of  1796, — sur- 
rounded now  as  he  was  then,  by  his  most  choice,  enlight- 
ened and  pure-minded  compatriots.  From  such  men  no 
botched  work  could  come  when  a  great  public  duty  was  to  be 
performed.  And  certainly  nothing  could  be  more  thorough 
and  perfect  than  what  actually  came  from  their  hands  in  re- 
gard both  to  the  Yazoo  subject  and  the  State's  Western  terri- 
tory. What  they  did  was  to  erect  an  express  constitutional 
barrier  against  the  sale  of  the  territory  of  the  State  or  any  part 
of  it  to  individuals  or  private  companies  unless  a  county  or 


THE  YAZOO  FRAUD.  1^9 

counties  should  have  first  been  laid  off  including  such  terri- 
tory, and  the  Indian  rights  thereto  should  have  been  first 
extinguished  also.  Anybody  can  see  at  a  glance  how  com- 
pletely this  prohibition  goes  to  the  bottom  of  things,  exter- 
minating the  very  roots  and  all  possibility  in  the  future  of 
such  crimes  and  misdoings  as  the  two  Yazoo  sales  had  been. 
It  is  not  in  this  provision,  however,  although  it  was  wise 
and  statesman-like  in  the  highest  degree,  that  we  find  the 
response  that  was  wanted  to  the  above  mentioned  Congres- 
sional overture.  That  presents  itself  in  another  clause 
which  enables  the  Legislature  to  sell  or  contract  to  the 
United  States  all  or  any  part  of  the  State's  Western  do- 
main lying  beyond  the  Chattahoochee,  and  then  again  still 
further  in  that  third  clause  which  authorizes  the  Legisla- 
ture to  give  its  consent  to  the  establishment  by  the  United 
States  of  one  or  more  governments  westward  of  that  river. 
Behold  here  implanted  in  our  long  honored  Constitution  of 
1798,  by  the  magnanimous  men  who  then  held  sway  in  Geor- 
gia, the  germ  of  the  memorable  cession  of  April,  1802,  and 
of  the  two  great  States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 

These  provisions  show  that  the  sense  of  the  Convention 
was  in  favor  of  a  cession  to  the  United  States.  The  first 
Legislature  under  the  new  Constitution,  being  of  like  opin- 
ion, proceeded  at  once  to  take  measures  for  carrying  out  the 
object.  On  the  6th  of  December,  1*799,  it  passed  an  Act 
appointing  Commissioners  to  settle  with  those  of  the  United 
States  the  terms  of  the  cession  ;  to  which  Act  the  ensuing 
Legislature  of  1800,  made  an  amendment,  adding  to  the  list 
of  Commissioners  on  the  part  of  the  State  the  name  of  Gen. 
Jackson,  who  was  now  filling  a  second  gubernatorial  term, 
but  had  just  been  chosen  by  the  Legislature  to  the  United 
States  Senate  as  successor  to  Gen.  Gunn,  whose  time  was 
to  expire  on  the  3d  of  March  ensuing. 

The  great  business  now  proceeded  at  a  quickened  pace. 
Assuming  it  as  certain  that  the  ultimate  and  early  event 
would  be  a  vast  territorial  cession,  embracing  the  Yazoo 
lands,  Congress  had  already  in  May,  1800,  amended  the 


130  THE  YAZOO   FRAUD. 

aforementioned  Act  of  April,  1798,  by  imposing  on  the  Na- 
tional Commissioners  therein  created,  a  heavy  and  tedious 
additional  duty  which  would  and  could  only  arise  after  the 
cession  had  been  made, — the  duty,  namely,  of  investigating 
all  claims  against  the  lands  ceded,  of  receiving  from  the 
claimants  propositions  for  the  compromise  and  settlement  of 
their  claims,  and  of  laying  a  full  statement  of  the  whole,  to- 
gether with  their  opinion  thereon,  before  Congress  for  its 
decision  thereon.  Mr.  Jefferson  upon  entering  on  the  Presi- 
dency found  the  appointing  of  these  Commissioners  one  of 
the  first  matters  demanding  his  attention.  His  sense  of  the 
exceeding  magnitude  and  importance  of  the  duties  to  be  de- 
volved on  them  is  strongly  attested  by  the  men  he  selected. 
They  were  none  other  than  three  of  the  members  of  his  Cab- 
inet— Mr.  Madison,  his  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Gallatin,  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  his  Attorney 
General.  A  grander  and  more  imposing  set  of  Commission- 
ers for  any  object  or  purpose  whatever  was  never  anywhere 
constituted,  whether  we  regard  the  illustrious  character  and 
ability  of  the  men  or  their  ripe,  thorough  statesmanship 
and  public  experience,  or  the  splendor  and  importance  of 
the  offices  they  were  then  actually  holding  near  the  Presi- 
dent. Their  very  appointment  shows  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
contemplated  that  in  performing  their  trust  as  Commission- 
ers they  were  to  be  all  the  while  acting  under  the  responsi- 
bility that  attached  to  them  as  components  of  his  Adminis- 
tration. 

Fully  worthy  of  association  and  conference  with  such  men 
were  the  Commissioners  on  the  part  of  Georgia, — Jackson, 
Baldwin,  and  Milledge, — whose  functions,  however,  were 
to  be  more  simple  and  of  shorter  continuance,  confined  to 
the  single  business  of  negotiating  and  signing  the  cession 
expected  to  be  made  by  the  State — a  work  which  was  com- 
pleted on  the  24th  day  of  April,  1802,  whereby  Georgia  con- 
veyed to  the  United  States  all  the  territory  stretching  from 
her  present  Western  boundary  to  the  Mississippi  river,  and 
lying  between  the  31st  and  the  35th  parallels  of  Latitude. 


THE   YAZOO   FRAUD.  131 

In  consideration  of  which  the  United  States  agreed  to  pay 
Georgia  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars,  and  to  be  at  the 
expense  of  extinguishing  for  her  the  Indian  occupancy  on 
all  the  territory  still  retained  by  the  State. 

Long  before  the  great  bargain  was  brought  to  a  close,  the 
Yazoo  claimants  were  astir  wherever  any  of  them  were  to  be 
found  in  America  or  Europe.  Either  in  person  or  by  their 
agents  or  proxies,  they  were  soon  seen  swarming  around  the 
United  States  Commissioners  and  overwhelming  them  with 
formal  notices  of  their  claims,  warning  them  that  if  the  Na- 
tional Government  bought  these  lands  from  Georgia,  it 
would  have  to  buy  them  at  its  peril,  subject  to  be  supplanted 
and  ousted  by  the  older  and  better  title  which  they  asserted 
they  already  held  from  Georgia,  the  deeds  and  evidences  of 
which  they  paraded  before  and  deposited  with  the  Commis- 
sioners, into  the  details  of  whose  labors,  at  once  immense 
and  minute,  there  is  no  call  upon  us  to  enter  in  this  tract. 
All  that  we  need  here  is  the  general  result  at  which  they  ar- 
rived and  which,  along  with  their  opinion,  they  reported  to 
Congress  on  the  16th  of  February,  1803,  with  full  state- 
ments and  accompanying  documents,  all  which  may  be 
found  spreading  over  many  pages  of  the  State  Papers.*  In 
their  report  the  Commissioners  mention  the  notorious  fact, 
confirmed  by  the  title  papers  the  claimants  had  lodged  with 
them,  that  the  lands  had  all  passed  out  of  the  original 
grantees  and  were  now  vested  in  second  holders.  These 
secondary  holders  said  that  they  had  bought  them  without 
knowledge  or  notice  of  the  fraud,  bribery  and  corruption 
that  had  contaminated  the  original  purchase  and,  therefore, 
they  claimed  immunity  for  their  title  from  these  grounds  of 
attack.  The  Commissioners,  nevertheless,  set  forth  fully 
all  the  criminating  evidence  which  had  come  to  their  hands, 
being  the  same  that  was  before  the  Rescinding  Legislature, 
and  in  the. body  of  their  report  is  stated  the  very  significant 
fact,  "that  all  the  deeds  given  by  the  Companies,  which  had 
been  exhibited  to  the  Commissioners,  as  well  as  all  the  sub- 

dmerican  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  Vol.  /,  pages  132, 150. 


132  THE   YAZOO   FRAUD. 

sequent  deeds,  with  only  two  or  three  exceptions,  not  only 
give  a  special  instead  of  a  general  warranty,  but  have  also  a 
special  covenant  in  the  following  words  :  'And  lastly,  it  is 
covenanted  and  expressly  agreed  and  understood  by  and 
between  the  parties  to  these  presents,  that  neither  the  grant- 
ors aforesaid,  nor  their  heirs,  executors  or  administrators, 
shall  be  held  to  any  further  or  other  warranty  than  is  here- 
in before  expressed,  nor  liable  to  the  refunding  any  money 
in  consequence  of  any  defect  in  their  title  from  the  State  of 
Georgia,  if  any  such  there  should  hereafter  appear  to  be.'  " 
Such  a  phenomenon  as  this  on  the  very  face  of  their  deeds 
would  have  been  enough  in  law  to  charge  the  claimants 
with  the  damning  notice  they  denied,  even  in  the  absence  of 
all  the  other  convincing  proofs  against  thorn  that  existed. 
Upon  this  fact,  then,  and  all  the  other  facts  and  circum- 
stances which  came  to  their  knowledge,  the  Commissioners 
were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  title  of  the  claimants 
could  not  be  supported. 

But  they  proceeded,  nevertheless,  to  express  their  belief 
that  "the  interest  of  the  United  States,  the  tranquility  of 
those  who  may  hereafter  inhabit  that  territory,  and  various 
equitable  considerations  which  may  be  urged  in  favor  of 
most  of  the  present  claimants,  render  it  expedient  to  enter 
into  a  compromise  on  reasonable  terms  ;"  and  they  thereupon 
proceed  to  submit  to  the  consideration  of  Congress  two 
plans  of  compromise,  one  proposing  compensation  to  the 
claimants  in  land,  'the  other  in  money — and  in  case  the 
moneyed  plan  should  be  adopted,  then  that  the  claimants 
should  be  paid  $2,500,000  in  certificates  of  the  Government, 
drawing  interest,  or  $5,000,000  in  non-interest  bearing  cer- 
tificates, payable  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the 
lands. 

There  is  a  very  deep  significance  in  this  recommendation 
of  a  compromise  by  the  commissioners.  It  amounts  to  their 
saying  that,  "although  the  claimants  have  no  title  and  the 
Government  is  under  no  obligation,  legal  or  equitable,  to 
pay  them  a  cent,  yet  as  they  will  have  a  vast  and  intermi- 


THE  TAZOO   FRAUD.  133 

nable  right  and  faculty  of  litigation,  annoyance  and  vexa- 
tion against  the  future  settlers  on  these  lands  under  titles 
to  he  derived  from  the  Government,  which,  among  other 
huge  evils,  will  have  the  effect  of  greatly  retarding  the  sale, 
settlement  and  improvement  of  the  lands, — that,  therefore, 
it  would  be  both  for  the  interest  of  the  Government  and  the 
interest  and  tranquility  of  the  future  settlers, — to  extinguish 
these  claims  noic  even  at  the  cost  of  five  millions  of  dollars, 
rather  than  leave  all  these  innumerable  acres  thus  liable  to 
permanent  controversy  and  litigation,  and  every  settler  on 
them  thus  exposed  to  law  suits,  against  which  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  bound  to  be  at  all  the.  trouble  and  expense  of 
defending  him  and  of  making  him  in  the  end  a  full  remuner- 
ation and  indemnity,  in  case  he  should  chance  unexpectedly 
lose  the  land  he  had  bought  from  the  Government. 

Such  was  the  view  the  Commissioners  took  of  this  matter, 
now  can  the  practical  sense  and  wisdom  of  it  be  gainsaid. 

Yet  it  prevailed  not  with  Congress.  For  seven  long  years 
from  1803  to  1810,  the  claimants  persisted  to  little  purpose 
in  beseiging  and  battering  that  body,  which  seemed,  indeed, 
rather  to  harden  than  to  give  way  tinder  their  ceaseless  im- 
portunity. The  terrible  Napoleanic  wars  were  all  this  while 
raging  over  Europe,  threatening,  striving,  as  it  were,  to 
draw  our  country,  too,  within  their  fearful  vortex,  out  of 
which  to  keep  her  was  Mr.  Jefferson's  great  study,  using  to 
that  end  all  upright  and  honorable  means,  even  to  such 
harsh  and  exhausting  measures  as  the  Embargo,  the  Re- 
striction and  the  Non-Intercourse  ;  in  spite  of  all  of  which 
the  dreaded  engulfment  came  at  last,  under  Mr.  Madison's 
administration.  Yet  little  recking  of  the  country's  trou- 
bles or  of  the  mighty  and  distressful  turmoil  of  the  times, 
the  Yazooists  haunted  Congress  every  session  with  their  ill- 
odored,  unrelenting  claims,  backed  by  the  ablest  and  most 
influential  lobby  that  had  up  to  that  time  ever  invested 
Congress  ;  sustained  at  the  same  time  by  a  powerful  North- 
era  avlvocacy  on  the  floor.  But  all  would  not  do.  The  pe- 
riod Lad  not  yet  come  when  the  people's  Representatives 


134  THE   YAZOO   FRAUD. 

could  be  gotten  to  throw  a  propitiating  sop  of  millions 
drawn  from  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  in  order  to  buy  off  a 
vile  claim  pronounced  to  be  at  once  the  offspring  of  crime, 
fraud  and  corruption,  and  to  be  devoid  also  of  all  legal 
quality  and  character,  by  which  it  could  demand  and  coerce 
support. 

If  at  this  remote  day  any  wonder  should  be  felt  that 
the  recommendation  of  a  compromise  by  a  Commission 
composed  of  such  great  men  and  high  functionaries  as  Madi- 
son, Gallatin,  and  Lincoln,  should  have  been  so  unavailing 
with  the  House,  where  the  Bill  for  the  proposed  appropria- 
tion had  to  originate, — let  it  be  recalled  how  lofty  and  un- 
bending the  temper  of  that  House  was  in  those  days  in 
maintaining  its  independence  of  thought  and  action,  especi- 
ally on  questions  of  taking  money  out  of  the  Treasury,  that  is 
to  say,  out  of  the  people's  pockets  ;  secondly,  how  fiercely 
public  and  Congressional  rage  then  burned  against  the  mon- 
strous Yazoo  crime;  and  lastly,  that  that  prodigy  of  parlia- 
mentary oratory  and  debating  talent,  John  Randolph,  was 
there  from  the  outset  to  the  end — in  all  the  pride  of 
young  manhood,  yet  ripe  genius  and  stored,  cultivated 
mind,  lashing  the  House  up  all  the  while  to  its  indignant 
duty  with  his  versatile,  unsparing,  exhaustless  powers  of 
eloquence  and  argument,  persuasion  and  investive. 

Weary  of  long  waiting  and  continued  disappointment,  to 
which  they  saw  no  end  on  their  present  tack,  the  Yazooists 
determined  at  last  on  a  new  departure — on  demonstrating  to 
Congress  in  a  manner,  at  once  practical  and  astounding,  that 
their  title  was  one  capable  of  being  supported  in  law,  the 
opinion  of  the  three  Cabinet  Commissioners  and  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  House  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  and 
that  their  claims,  in  the  event  of  being  thrust  out  of  the 
National  Legislature,  were  sure  of  finding  a  favorable  recep- 
tion in  the  sanctuary  of  the  National  Courts.  The  pro- 
ceedure  instituted  and  prosecuted  to  a  close  with  a  view  to 
this  demonstration  long  stood  out  to  view  as  the  most  erratic 
and  lawless  judicial  phenomenon  ever  known  iu  our  history. 


THE   YAZOO   FRAUD.  135 

It  was  eminently  an  unprincipled  and  audacious  thing,  and 
nothing  but  that  sort  of  triumphal  palliation  which  success 
too  often  imparts  to  crime  in  this  world  could  ever  have 
prevented  it  from  being  regarded  by  everybody  as  also  a 
mad  and  disgraceful  thing. 

The  plan  was  to  get  up  and  carry  through  all  the  wind- 
ings and  forms  of  high  litigation  a  feigned  case,  so  contrived 
as  to  draw  out  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
if  entertained  there,  a  solemn,  though  volunteer,  gratuitous 
pronouncement  ex  cathedra  in  favor  of  the  claimants  on  all 
the  points  they  deemed  necessary  or  advantageous  to  their 
title.  It  was  the  celebrated  case  of  Fletcher  against  Peck, 
reported  at  great  length  in  the  6th  volume  of  Cranch.  No 
professional  man  acquainted  with  the  story  of  the  Yazoo 
Fraud  can  possibly  read  that  case  without  seeing  in  it  the 
unmistakable  brands  and  marks  of  a  feigned  case,  even 
though  one  of  the  Judges,  Johnson,  had  not  weakly  called 
attention  to  the  flagrant  fact* — I  say  weakly,  because  he 
nevertheless,  was  not  prevented  by  the  fact,  from  entertain- 
ing the  case  and  pronouncing  an  opinion  thereon  in  favor  of 
the  Yazooists.  To  lawyers  it  would  be  neither  necessary  nor 
complimentary  to  enter  here  into  the  long  and  intricate  de- 
tails of  the  case  with  its  artistically  concocted  pleadings  and 
laboriously  constructed  special  verdict ;  for  they  are  to  be 


•Mr.  Justice  Johnson,  in  delivering  his  opinion,  made  the  following  remarks 
at  the  close  :  "I  have  been  very  unwilling  to  proceed  to  the  decision  of  this 
case  at  all  It  appears  to  bear  strong  evidence  upon  the  face  of  it  of  being  a 
mere  feigned  case.  It  is  our  duty  to  decide  on  the  rights  but  not  on  the  specu- 
lation of  parties.  My  confidence,  however,  in  the  respectable  gentlemen,t 
who  have  been  engaged  for  the  parties,  have  induced  me  to  abandon  my 
scruples,  in  the  belief  that  they  would  never  consent  to  impose  a  mere  feigned 
case  upon  this  Court.— Crunch1  s  Rep.,  6th  Vol.,  p.  147-8. 


|  And  yet  Robert  Goodloe  Harper  was  one  of  those  gentlemen,  whose  name,  as 
one  of  the  large,  original  Yazoo  partners,  was  in  thousands  of  Congressional 
documents  with  which  the  country  was  then  flooded.  Thirty  years  ago,  in  a 
book  store  in  Washington.  I  picked  up  a  bound  second  hand  copy  of  oue  of 
them,  which  I  now  have,  printed  by  order  of  Congress  in  1809. 


136  THE   YAZOO   FRAUD. 

supposed  acquainted  with  them  already.  To  the  laity  such 
a  recital  would  certainly  be  alike  irksome  and  unprofitable. 
Suffice  it,  then,  to  say  that  the  Circuit  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts in  which  the  feigned  suit  was  started,  gratified  fully  the 
wishes  of  the  claimants,  deciding  every  point  as  they  desired, 
and  perfectly  validating  their  title  from  beginning  to  end. 
Nevertheless,  they  carried  the  case  up  to  the  Supreme  Court 
at  Washington,  in  order  that  it  might  be  there  affirmed 
and  clinched  forever.  And  it  was  securely  clinched  by  that 
tribunal.  With  the  exception  of  poor  Johnson,  all  the 
Court,  from  a  regard  to  decency  and  appearances,  made 
itself  voluntarily  blind  to  the  staring  fact  that  it  wan  a 
feigned  case,  and  consequently  one  which  it  was  highly  dis- 
creditable and  criminal  for  the  Court  to  entertain  and 
decide  at  all.  Moreover,  the  whole  Court  persistently  shut 
its  eyes  to  the  grand,  vital  principles  on  which  Washington 
had  so  decidedly  combated  and  nullified  the  first  Yazoo 
Sale,  that  of  1*789,  and  on  which  he  had  equally  come  forth 
denouncing  and  ready,  if  need  there  should  be,  to  combat 
and  nullify  likewise  this  second  Yazoo  Sale  of  1*795,  when- 
ever it  should  put  forth  its  head  so  as  to  be  within  reach  of 
the  National  arm.  Overlooking  all  these  vast  and  weighty 
considerations,  so  important  with  the  Father  of  his  Country, 
the  Court  studiously  narrowed  its  view  to  the  points  to 
which  the  Yazooists  for  their  own  purposes  chose  to  solicit 
its  attention.  The  result  was  a  judgment  delivered  at  the 
February  term,  1810,  going  the  full  length  for  the  title  of 
the  Yazoo  claimants,  pronouncing  it  just  as  good  as  if  the 
Rescinding  Act  of  Georgia  had  never  been  passed,  invulner- 
able, indeed,  by  tiny  act  of  the  State  either  singly  or  in 
combination  with  the  United  States,  and  consequently  better 
than  the  younger  title  the  State  had  conveyed  to  the 
United  States  by  the  cession  of  April,  1802.  In  fine,  it 
was  a  judgment  which  fully  verified  and  reduced  to  an 
absolute  certainty  all  the  little  credited  vaticinations,  the 
possibility  of  which  turning  out  true  had  led  the  Commis- 
sioners to  recommend  the  •  five  million  compromise  as  a 


THE  YAZOO   FRAUD.  137 

thing  for  the  interest  of  the  United  States  and  the  interest 
and  tranquility  of  the  future  settlers  on  the  contested  terri- 
tory. 

And  now  Congress,  seeing  itself  in  vinculis,  and  very 
much  at  the  tnercy  of  the  claimants  in  regard  to 
all  the  Yazoo  lands,  upon  well  revolving  the  matter  thought 
it  best  to  come  to  terms  with  them,  and  finally,  after  a  moody 
interval  of  some  four  years,  passed  the  Act  of  31st  of  March, 
1814,  appropriating  the  sum  of  five  million  of  dollars  to  he 
raised  by  sales  of  the  lands,  to  the  perpetual  quieting  and 
extinguishment  all  the  Yazoo  Claims,  which  being  agreed 
at  once  to  be  accepted  by  the  claimants,  there  was  an  end  at 
last  of  a  matter  which  I  have  essayed  to  trace  Irom  its  origin 
and  through  all  its  vicissitudes,  and  which  with  a  better 
handling  than  I  have  been  capable  of  giving  it,  would  be 
found  forming  a  chapter  in  the  history  of  Georgia  and  of  the 
United  States  interesting  and  important,  as  well  as  multi- 
farious, complicated  and  long. 

FINIS. 


ERRATA  IN  PART  I. 

On  page  34,  16  line  from  top,  read  post  instead  ot  peat. 
On  page  36,  5th  line  from  bottom,  read  fury  instead  of  fray 


PART  III. 


GENERAL  JAMES  JACKSON. 
GENERAL  ANTHONY  WAYNE. 


CIIAJPTER    1. 


GEN.  JAMES  JACKSON— GEN.  ANTHONY  WAYNE. 

As  when  the  laborious  husbandman  whose  daily  bread  is 
sweetened  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  and  by  the  holy  sense 
of  providing  by  his  toil  for  his  wife  and  children,  has  been  all 
the  week  long, with  measured  stride  and  stalwart  arms,  swing- 
ing the  scythed  cradle  here  and  there  over  his  field  wherever 
the  nodding  harvest  looked  ripest  and  most  tempting;  wearied 
atlength  he  pauses  from  his  task  at  the  near  approach  of  the 
sacred  day  of  rest,  surveys  his  work,  eyes  gratefully  his 
thick-standing  sheaves,  and  taking  note  of  what  there  still  is 
for  his  industrious  hands  to  do,  beholds,  well  pleased,  the 
rich,  retiring  nooks  and  deep,  fertile  hollows  that  yet  await 
his  blade  : — so  do  I,  having  in  an  irregular,  desultory  man- 
ner, treated  of  the  development,  fortunes  and  affairs  of  Geor- 
gia during  a  considerable  lapse  of  time  next  after  the  Revo- 
lutionary war,  now  looking  back  perceive  in  the  period  I  have 
thus  traversed  not  a  few  things  which  although  interesting 
and  well  worthy  of  notice,  have  as  yet  remained  untouched 
by  my  roving  pen. 

And  first — of  Gen.  Jackson  himself  it  is  meet  and  would 
be  both  grateful  and  rewarding  that  something  further 
should  be  said  and  told,  even  though  it  carry  us  back  be- 
yond the  Revolutionary  era.  For  it  is  attended  alike  with 
pleasure  and  profit  to  follow  and  observe  such  a  man 
from  his  early  beginnings  and  through  all  his  vicissitudes. 
What  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  see  and  know  about 
him  naturally  excites  curiosity  to  know  more,  and  we  would 


4  GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

fain  get  a  full  view  of  one  so  marked  and  superior,  so  much 
above  the  world's  ordinary  standard  and  requirements,  so 
much  a  pride  and  honor  to  our  common  nature  ; — one  whom 
suchajudgeas  Thos.  Spalding,  himself  assuredly  a  mostnohle 
man  and  who  enjoyed  the  amplest  opportunities,  in  his  long 
and  honorable  life,  of  knowing  men  of  distinction  in  Eu- 
rope and  America,  advisedly  pronounced,  forty  odd  years 
after  his  death,  "the  noblest  man  with  whom  it  had  been 
his  lot  to  be*acquainted."* 

He  landed  on  our  shores  from  his  native  England  in  1772: 
a  lone  lad  of  fifteen  years.  Of  virtuous  and  respectable  pa- 
rentage, breeding  and  connexions,  we  cannot  but  suppose 
that  he  had  at  that  immature  age  already  strongly  evinced 
safe  and  superior  qualities  of  mind  and  character  and  given 
evidences  of  high  future  promise  ; — otherwise  his  father 
would  hardly  have  consented,  nor  would  such  a  man  as  Mr. 
Wereat,  a  name  of  great  note  and  respect  in  our  Colonial 
and  Revolutionary  annals  and  at  one  time  Acting  Governor 
of  the  State,  have  advised  him  to  consent  to  his  son's  com- 
ing to  America  under  his  Mr.  Wereat' s,  auspices,  to  make 
his  own  way  and  build  up  his  fortunes  in  this  remote  and 
then  wild  part  of  the  earth.  We  are  told  that  his  father 


*  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia — vol  2,  page  102.  Titic,  John  Houston.  See 
there  a  letter  from  Mr.  Spalding  to  Maj.  Miller,  of  the  IWch  October,  1850, 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"It  gives  me  pleasure  to  state  that  Gen.  James  Jackson,  the  noblest  man 
with  whom  it  has  bean  my  lor  to  be  acquainted,  when.  I  called  upon  him  as 
Governor  to  give  me  a  letter  to  Mr.  King,  our  then  Minister  in  London,  kept 
me  to  dine  with  him  ;  and  asked  me  what  were  Mr.  Gibbons'  receipts  from  his 
profession."  I  replied,  "Three  thousand  pounds  per  annual."  "My  own  were 
about  that  amount  when  I  unwisely  left  my  profession  foi  politics.  Mr.  Gib- 
bons, as  a  whole,  was  the  greatest  lawyer  in  Georgia."  Let  me  say  to  you  that 
Gen.  Jackson  and  Mr.  Gibbons  had  exchanged  three  shots  at  nach  other.  They 
were  considered  the  bitterest  enemies  by  the  public.  A  high  minded  man 
knows  no  enmity." 

I  had  intended  to  add  here  a  few  words  of  my  own  about  Mr.  Spalding.whom 
I  knew,  revered  and  held  in  the  highest  honor.  But  on  turning  to  the  notice 
of  him  in  White's  Hirtorical  Sketches  of  Georgia,  I  prefer  it  to  any  thing  I 
can  write.  It  will  be  found  in  full  as  a  note  at  the  end  of  thii  chapter. 


GENERALS   JACKSON    AND    WAYNE.  5 

was  a  etrenous  lover  of  freedom  and  free  Government  and 
of  the  rights  of  the  people  as  against  arbitrary  power,- — and 
particularly  that  he  was  a  warm  sympathiser  with  the  Colo- 
nies in  their  as  yet  bloodless  quarrel  with  the  mother  coun- 
try for  their  rights  and  liberties.  These  principles  and  sen- 
timents young  Jackson  had  deeply  imbibed  before  quitting 
the  paternal  roof  and  indeed  they  largely  influenced  his  em- 
igration and  casting  his  lot  here.  Accordingly,  it  was  not 
long  after  reaching  his  new  home  in  Georgia,  before  they 
shone  out  in  his  warm  participation  in  the  feelings  and  pro- 
ceedings which  were  even  then  beginning  to  herald  the  ap- 
proaching Revolution. 

The  very  pursuit  to  which  his  father  and  Mr.  Wereat  had 
destined  him  in  Georgia  is  proof  of  their  high  opinion  of 
his  capacity  and  endowments.  For  although  so  young,  he 
was,  upon  his  arrival  in  Savannah,  at  once  put  to  the  study 
of  law  in  the  office  of  Samuel  Farley,  Esq.,  applying  him- 
self at  the  same  time  to  such  other  studies  as  were  necessary 
to  the  completion  of  his  general  education.  With  what  en- 
thusiasm, industry  and  success  he  applied  himself,  some 
idea  may  be  formed  from  the  fact  handed  down  from  his 
own  lips  by  Mr.  Spalding,  that  after  the  Revolutionary 
war  and  before  embarking  in  politics,  he  practiced  law  so 
prosperously  that  his  professional  earnings  at  their  acme 
reached  to  the  sum  of  £3,000  per  annum — a  prodigious 
amount  when  we  consider  the  small  population  and  the  still 
smaller  wealth,  commerce  and  resources  of  Georgia  in  those 
times. 

Before,  however,  finishing  his  studies  and  coming  to  the 
Bar,  and  whilst  yet  a  mere  stripling,  he,  like  that  other 
glorious  young  genius  of  the  day-spring  of  the  Revolution, 
Alexander  Hamilton,  betwixt  whom  and  himself  there  are 
not  wanting  strong  points  of  resemblance,  obeyed  the  im- 
pulse of  courage,  ambition,  patriotism  and  a  passionate  love 
of  liberty  and  hastened  to  exchange  his  books  and  seclusion 
for  arms  and  the  din  of  war. 

It  comports  not  with  my  plan  to  enter   into  the   minute 


GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 


details  of  the  young  soldier's  Revolutionary  career,  and 
indeed  nothing  could  be  more  unnecessary.  For  are  they 
not  to  be  found  written  in  every  book  of  the  chronicles  of 
Georgia? — where,  among  the  many  things  in  relation  to 
him,  it  is  recorded  that  his  first  feat  of  arms  (a  very  daring 
and  purely  volunteer  affair  of  himself  and  a  little  band  of 
otherpatriots,  resulting  in  their  burningseveral  of  the  enemy's 
armed  vessels  which  had  grounded  in  proceeding  up  the  river 
against  the  city)  won  for  him  much  applause  and  a  lieuten- 
ancy. Soon  a  captaincy  rewarded  his  rapidly  developing 
martial  merits  And  so  he  continued  to  rise,  never  failing 
to  justify  his  promotions  by  his  performances — until  at 
length  we  see  him  before  the  end  of  the  war  by  Gen. 
Green's  appointment  and  the  confirmation  of  Congress,  the 
commander,  in  his  24th  year,  of  a  mixed  Legion  of  cavalry 
and  infantry.  On  every  occasion  and  in  every  position 
throughout  the  long,  harsh  struggle,  he  added  to  his  steadily 
growing  reputation.  Victory  brought  him  laurels  which,  so 
fine  was  ever  his.  conduct,  no  adversities  or  reverses  that 
befel  him  could  take  away  or  dim.  For  alike  in  distress  and 
in  good  fortune  he  exhibited  fertile  and  brilliant  capacity, 
an  unflinching  devotion  to  duty,  indefatigable  activity  and 
a  heroism  not  to  be  cowed  by  wounds,  perils,  fatigues  ;  nor 
by  hunger,  thirst  and  nakedness,  nor  all  the  other  nameless 
discouragements  and  sufferings  of  ill-provided  war  and  cam- 
paigning in  the  woods  and  swamps  of  lower  Georgia  and 
Carolina  against  an  enemy  entrenched  and  under  cover  in 
Augusta,  Savannah  and  Charleston,  and  continually  sally- 
ing out  from  these  strongholds  as  assailants,  pursuers,  ma- 
rauders, devastators — and  then  rushing  back  again  to  their 
shelter  when  routed  or  endangered  or  wearied  out  or  sated 
with  spoliation.  Such  an  impression  did  his  extraordinary 
merits  and  services  in  the  closing  scenes  of  the  war  in  Geor- 
gia make  on  his  General,  that  renowned  soldier  and  com- 
mander, Anthony  Wayne,  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  final 
surrender  of  Savannah  by  the  British  to  our  arms  in  July, 
1782,  he  honored  him  by  ordering  that  the  formal  surrender 


GENERALS   JACKSON   AND    WAYNE.  7 

should  be  made  into  his  hands.  And  accordingly  it  was  so 
done  by  the  keys  of  the  city  being  delivered  up  to  him  by 
the  evacuating  British  commander  in  presence  of  both  armies. 
One  of  those  remarkable  incidents  which,  by  reason  of  be- 
falling men  of  celebrity,  often  become  canonized  in  history, 
is  related  to  have  occurred  during  the  gloomiest  period  of 
the  Revolution  to  him  and  his  young  friend,  John  Milledge, 
the  same  who  afterwards  became  a  Representative  and  then 
a  Senator  in  Congress,  and  Governor  also  of  the  State — in 
honor  of  whom  likewise  Milledgeville  was  named,  destined 
as  the  permanent  capital  of  the  State — a  destiny,  however, 
not  permitted  to  stand,  but  to  the  mortal  shame  of  Georgia 
set  aside  now  by  her  submission  thus  far  to  an  ephemeral 
satrap's  wanton,  dishonoring  edict.  During  the  utter  pros- 
tration of  our  cause  in  lower  Georgia,  consequent  on  the  fall 
I  of  Savannah,  in  1778,  these  undaunted  youthfnl  patriots 
repaired  together  to  South  Carolina  to  seek  service.  Whilst 
on  their  way  to  join  Gen.  Moultrie's  standard  "barefoot  and 
in  rags,  these  sons  of  liberty,"  we  are  told,  "were  appre- 
hended as  spies  by  some  American  soldiers  and  condemned 
to  be  hung.  The  gallows  was  actually  prepared,  and  but 
for  the  timely  arrival  of  Maj.  Devaux,  who  accidentally 
heard  of  the  transaction,  the  two  young  patriots  would  have 
been  executed."*  Behold  here  in  our  own  annals  an 
authentic  fact  which  taken  in  connection  with  the  subsequent 
eminence  and  illustriousnes.s  of  both  the  men,  surpasses  any 
thing  in  history,  nay,  even  excels  that  famous  antique  fiction 
of  Belisarius,  old  and  blind,  begging  a  penny, f  victim, 
of  Justinian's  imperial  ingratitude  and  cruelty  after  a  life- 
time of  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  war  in  his  service,  and 
an  hundred  victories  won  for  him  and  declining  Rome. 

The  long  revolutionary  struggle  being  at  last  ended  and 
the  occupation  of  arms  at  an  end  with  it, — peace  found  Col. 
Jackson  standing  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  recent  war  like 

*  White's  Statistics  of  Georgia,  page  337.  National  Portrait  Gallery.  Title 
James  Jackson. 

t  "Da  Belisario  obolum."' 


8  GENERALS   JACLSON    AND    AVAYNE. 

thousands  of  his  brother  officers  and  soldiers  in  utter  pov- 
erty— houseless,  penniless,  without  means  or  employment — 
with  no  resources  but  such  as  existed  in  his  own  mind  and 
character,  and  in  the  boundless  love  and  admiration  of  his 
fellow-citizens,  a  love  and  admiration  heightened  by  a  sense 
of  gratitude  for  his  services — all  which  was  well  attested 
by  legislative  resolutions  of  thanks  and  honof,  and  the  gift 
to  him  by  the  State  of  a  house  and  home  in  the  city  of 
Savannah. 

But  by  nothing  could  he  be  paralysed  or  rendered  a 
cypher.  It  was  a  necessity  of  his  nature  and  character  that 
he  should  cherish  and  pursue  high  aims  under  all  circum- 
stances, adverse  or  prosperous,  of  peace  or  of  war.  He 
went  instantly  to  work  in  the  arduous,  aspiring  profession 
to  which  he  had  been  early  dedicated.  As  we  have  already 
seen,  he  had  stored  and  trained  his  mind  by  juridical  and 
miscellaneous  studies  before  the  Revolution,  and  during 
it  not  in  arras  alone  was  he  developed  and  exercis- 
ed. Led  by  duty  and  martial  ardor  to  harrangue  his  com- 
mands on  many  a  trying  occasion,  he  found  out  and  culti- 
vated that  rare  talent  of  ready,  effective,  stirring  eloquence 
with  which  nature,  study,  self-discipline  and  practice  com- 
bined gradually  to  endow  him  in  a  distinguished  manner. 
This  bright,  crowning  talent  coming  in  aid  of  his  general 
mass  of  ability  and  knowledge,  and  of  his  great  energy, 
uprightness,  industry  and  enthusiasm,  he  rose  rapidly  at 
the  Bar  and  won  the  triumphant  success  there  to  which 
allusion  has  been  made.  So  striking  was  his  success  and 
such  the  impression  he  made  of  possessing  qualifications 
equal  to  any,  the  highest,  spheres  of  public  service,  that  his 
fellow-citizens  soon  looked  forward  with  pride  to  his  future 
career  and  foresaw  the  honors  of  the  patriot  statesman  clus- 
tering on  his  brow  along  with  those,  already  won,  of  the 
forum  and  the  field.  It  was  at  this  stage,  in  1788,  that  the 
office  of  Governor  was  tendered  him,  but  which  his  modesty 
declined,  on  the  ground  of  the  want  of  age  and  political  expe- 
rience. For  though  his  ambition  was  high  and  mettlesome, 


GENERALS   JACKSON    AND    WAYNE.  0 

yet  it  was  far  from  being  prurient  and  self-blinding,  and 
did  not  lead  him  to  think  that  what  service  he  had  seen  in 
our  Legislature,  and  which  was  all  the  political  apprentice- 
ship he  had  then  had,  was  sufficient  to  fit  one  so  young  for 
the  chief  magistracy  of  the  State. 

There  was,  however,  another  great  and  interesting  politi- 
cal theatre  just  opening  at  that  time,  better  suited  to  his 
years,  his  genius,  and  his  training  and  for  which  he  felt  a 
predilection  that  may  have  had  some  subtle  influence,  for 
aught  we  know,  in  disinclining  him  to  the  Governorship. 
For  the  new  Federal  Constitution  had  been  now  adopted,  and 
in  apportioning  the  representation  of  the  States  in  Congress, 
there  had  been  given  to  Georgia  three  members  in  the  Lower 
Ilnuse,  and  the  Legislature  at  its  first  meeting  afterwards 
had  divided  the  State  into  three  Congressional  Districts  for 
the  election  of  those  members.  Gen.  Jackson  became  a  can- 
didate and  a  successful  one  in  the  First  or  Eastern  District, 
composed  of  the  counties  of  Chatham,  Liberty,  Effingham, 
Glynn  and  Camden.  In  the  Second  or  Middle  District, 
Abraham  Baldwin  was  chosen,  and  in  the  Third  or  Western, 
George  Mathews.  All  over  the  United  States,  likewise,  the 
people  rallied  in  their  respective  States  to  make  choice  of 
their  Representatives  in  this  their  First  Congress  under  the 
new  Federal  system,  and  the  Legislatures  of  the  several 
States  proceeded  also  to  elect  their  first  National  Senators. 
Slowly  and  not  without  a  seeming  of  backwardness  and  dif- 
fidence did  the  great  historic  body  get  together  and  go  about 
its  mighty  task  of  building  up  from  the  very  bottom, on  a  plan 
prefixed  and  wholly  novel,  a  vast  and  complex  Republican 
Empire.  On  the  appointed  day  of  meeting,  the  4th  of 
March,  178U,  only  eight  Senators  and  thirteen  Representa- 
tives were  in  attendance.  Gradually  other  members  came, 
but  so  scatteringly  that  it  was  as  late  as  the  first  of  April 
before  a  quorum  appeared  in  the  Lower  House,  and  five  days 
later  still  before  there  was  one  in  the  Senate,  nor  was  it 
until  the  30th  of  the  month  that  Washington  was  installed 
und  the  new  Government  ready  to  go  to  work. 


10  GENERALS   JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

In  the  illustrious  assemblage  of  tried,  picked  men  with 
whom  Gen.  Jackson  now  saw  himself  associated  in  the 
National  service,  there  was  not  a  younger  politician  to  be 
found  than  himself.  So  he  himself  tells  us  in  'one  of  his 
speeches.  *  And  yet  those  who  will  follow  him,  as  I  have 
done,  through  the  volumes  containing  the  debates  of  that 
memorable,  three-sessioned  Congress,  will  perceive  that  he 
carried  with  him  into  that  body  not  only  the  exalted  manly 
fervor  and  public-spirit  appropriate  to  bis  age,  temperament 
and  patriotic  character,  but  also  such  thorough  and  various 
preparation  of  mind  and  knowledge,  such  accurate  acquain- 
tance with  the  subjects  that  had  to  be  discussed,  and  such 
sense,  talent  and  readiness  in  discussing  them,  in  fine,  such 
a  judicious  activity  and  such  sound,  enlightened  views,  as 
would  have  done  honor  to  gray  hairs  and  veteran  statesman- 
ship and  soon  secured  to  him  rank  and  consideration 
among  his  fellow  members.  Keeping  attention  closely  upon 
him  throughout  this,  his  two-years'  Congressional  novitiate, 
we  at  times  cannot  help  feeling  wonder,  as  in  the  very 
parallel  case  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  tli at  under  all  the 
actual  circumstances  of  his  whole  preceding  life  he  should 
have  been  able  to  make  himself  what  he  was  in  mental 
culture  and  discipline,  and  to  have  amassed  such  intellectual 
stores,  especially  of  the  political  kind,  as  he  showed  himself 
to  possess.  Nothing  but  a  very  superior  constitution  of  mind 
and  nature  combined  with  high  ambition  and  indefatigable 
energy,  industry  and  application  can  explain  the  rare  and 
interesting  phenomenon. 

But  whilst  he  was  thus  devoting  himself  to  his  country's 
service  and  acquiring  a  proud  name  in  Congress,  intelli- 
gence reached  him  there  towards  the  end  of  his  term,  of  an 
event  at  home  for  which  he  was  unprepared  and  which  was 
well  calculated  to  sting  him  to  the  quick  and  rouse  all  the 
lion  in  his  nature.  The  3d  of  January,  17'Jt,  was  the  time  of 
the  election  for  the  next  Representative  term.  Though 

*  Gales'  Debates  of  the  First  Congress,  vol.  1,  page  1,266. 
Benton's  Abr.  Debates,  vol.  1,  page  SIR. 


•-KNKRALS   JACKSON    AND   WAYNE.  11 

standing  again  as  a  candidate,  yet  with  a  noble  conscien- 
tiousness and  full  of  trust  in  his  strength  with  the  people, 
he  stirred  not  from  his  distant  post  of  duty,  but  faithfully 
remained  there— leaving  his  election  to  the  care  of  his  con- 
stituents. That  care  happened  not  to  be  adequate  to  the 
needs  of  the  case.  It  did  not  prevent  frauds  and  lawless 
irregularities,  the  result  of  which  was  that  he  was  superseded, 
and  Gen.  Anthony  Wayne,  now  become  a  citizen  of  Georgia, 
the  famed  hero  of  Stony  Point,  the  recoverer  of  Savannah 
and  Lower  Georgia  from  the  British,  the  winner  also  of 
countless  laurels  at  Brandywine,  Germantown,  Monmouth, 
and  on  other  hard  fought  fields  of  the  Revolution,  was  re- 
turned in  his  stead. 

Perfectly  characteristic  was  Gen.  Jackson's  dealing  with 
the  criminalities  of  this  election,  and  particularly  with  the 
two  most  conspicuous  criminals.  His  investigations,  his 
denunciations  and  his  vengeance  were  prompt  and  severe. 
The  most  outrageous  villainy  was  that  enacted  in  Camden 
county  by  Osborne,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  who,  after 
the  close  of  the  regular  election  in  the  day-time,  not  satis- 
fied with  the  result,  got  possession  of  the  legal  returns  and 
substituted  therefor  during  the  night  the  forged  returns  of 
a  sham  election.  Short  breathing  time  had  he  to  exult  over 
the  success  of  this  foul  perpetration.  The  very  next  Legis- 
lature saw  him  arraigned  for  the  crime,  impeached  by  the 
House  of  Representatives,  dragged  before  the  Senate,  tried, 
convicted  and  expelled  from  office, — the  only  precedent  of 
the  kind  in  any  case  higher  than  that  of  a  Land  Lottery 
Commissioner  that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  State.  The 
other  worst  iniquity  was  practiced  in  Effingham  county.  It 
consisted  of  illegal  management  of  the  election  and  some 
illegal  voting  besides,  under  the  inimical  counsel  and  influ- 
ence of  Thomas  Gibbons,  a  man  of  very  strong,  determined 
character  and  great  courage  and  ability,  and  much  noted 
throughout  a  long  and  prosperous  after-life,  though  never 
engaged  in  any  but  private  and  professional  pursuits.  He 
quitted  Savannah,  where  he  lived,  and  repaired  to  Effing- 


12  GENERALS   JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

ham  for  the  purpose  of  working  therein  the  election  against 
Gen.  Jackson.  It  was  the  terrible  denunciations  which  the 
part  he  thus  acted  brought  down  upon  him  from  Gen.  Jack- 
son in  his  speech  before  the  House  of  Representatives  contest- 
ing the  election,  that,  doubtless,  led  to  the  duel  and  'the  three 
shots'  between  them  of  which  Mr.  Spaldiug  makes  mention.* 

*  For  a  report  of  all  The  facts  touching  this  election  and  of  Gen.  Jackson's 
speech,  see  Clarke's  Book  of  Congressional  Contested  elections— p.  p.  47-^8 
Among  the  curious  things  contained  in  this  report  is  the  number  of  voters 
in  each  county.  According  to  the  statement  furnished  to  the  Committee  on  Elec  - 
tionsby  Gen  Jackson,  the  poll, 'if  all  the  returns  had  V>oen  received  and  had  been 
proper'. would  have  been  just  f>51  votes  in  the  whole  district.  Chatham  county  2.">9 
Liberty  69.  Effingham  107,  Glynn  27,  Camden  89.  At  that  time  there  were  in 
the  whole  State  but  eleven  counties,  and  according  to  the  census  of  1790,  the 
population  wag  as  follows  : 

Freee  Whites.  Slave*  Total. 

Camden  234  70  3"4 

Glynn 193  21.'v  4uS 

Liberty 1,303  4,023  5.328 

Chatham  '2,456  «.2U1  10,667 

Effingham 1,674  750  2.424 

Richmond 7,162  4,116  11,278 

Burke 7,l>64  2392  9..j:.fi 

Washington 3,856  ti'.M  4,5.'>0 

Wilkes 24,05'i  V.2HS  31,320 

Franklin 885  156  1.041 

Greene 4,020  1.377  b,W~ 


53,797  20.164  82,163 

Columbia  county  was  created  out  of  Richmond  by  an  Act  of  10th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1790,  but  was  not  organized  when  the  census  was  taken.  Wilkes  had  then 
undergone  no  subdivision,  but  still  retained  all  her  vast  pre-revolutionary  ter- 
ritory— which  accounts  for  the  numerousness  of  her  population. 

Mr.  Gibbons,  in  his  advanced  years,  following  a  fashion  formerly  not  un- 
common among  Savannah  families  rich  enough  to  afford  it,  had  a  Northern 
summer  residence  which  was  at  Elizabethtown.  in  New  Jersey.  This  circum- 
stance led  to  a  very  noted,  if  not  the  most  noted,  thing  in  his  life — a  thing 
which  caused  his  name  to  become  notorious  and  familiar  all  over  the  United 
States  both  in  conversation  and  in  print.  Disbelieving  in  the  constitutionality 
of  the  law  of  New  York  conferring  on  a  chartered  company  and  its  assignees 
the  exclusive  right  of  navigating  the  waters  of  that  State  by  steam  vessels, — he 
commenced  running  in  1818  a  line  oi  steamboats  of  his  own  between  Eli/.a- 
bethtown  Point  and  New  York  City  in  violation  of  the  exclusive  chartered 
right.  As  was  foreseen,  Ogden,  the  company's  assignee  for  that  route,  resorted 
at  once  to  law  to  stop  Gibbons'  boats.  He  filed  a  bill  before  Chancellor  Kent 
for  a  present  and  perpetual  injunction  against  Gibbons,  which  the  Chancellor 
granted, 'holding  the  New  York  law  constitutional.  Gibbons  carried  the  case 


<U:M:KALS  JACKSOX  AND  WAYNE.  13 

The  Congress  to  which  Gen.  Wayne  was  returned  as- 
s.-mbled  on  the  24th  of  October,  1791.  At  the  end  of  a 
week  from  that  d&te  we  iind  him  in  his  seat  as  a  member, 
where  he  hud  been  but  a  fortnight  when  he  was  disturbed  by 
Gen.  Jackson  appearing  and  contesting  his  right  to  that 
seat.  The  contest  lasted  several  months,  Gen.  Wayne  re- 
maining in  his  seat  and  exercising  (nil  Representative  func- 
tions all  the  while.  The  investigations  were  thorough  ami 
brought  out  abundant  proof  that  the  General's  election  was 
illegal  but  none  whatever  implicating  the  General  himself 
in  any  of  the  illegal  means  by  which  it  had  been  effected. 
Nor  was  there  ever  any  imputation  against  him  personally 
in  connection  with  the  election.  It  was  the  not  uncommon 
case  of  a  candidate's  partizaus  without  his  participation  or 

up  to  the  highest  tribunal  in  New  York,  the  Court  of  Errors,  where  the  deci- 
sion rendered  against  him  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  was  sustained  and  affirmed. 
Whereupon  an  appeal  was  taken  by  him  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  StaN-., 
which  upon  full  argument  and  consideration  reversed  the  New  York  decision 
and  pronounced  the  New  York  law  unconstitutional,  thereby  throwing  open  all 
(lie  waters  oi  the  United  States  to  free  navigation  by  steam.  The  case,  through- 
out its  long  pendency  was  regarded  as  one  of  immense  public,  political  and 
commercial  importance,  and  excited,  consequently,  a  strong  and  unusual  in- 
terest, and  Mr.  Gibbons  himself,  came  to  be  everywhere  viewed  as  the  cham- 
pion of  free  trade  between  the  States,  and  indeed  somewhat  in  the  light  of  a 
great  public  bent-factor  by  having  taken  upon  himself  the  burden  of  this  mag- 
nificent, costly  and  finally  victorious  litigation.  In  1824,  not  long  after  Mr. 
Gibbons'  triumph  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  I  heard  Judge 
Berrien  say  in  conversing  with  some  gentlemen  about  it,  that  Mr.  Gibbons, 
whilst  the  case  was  yet  pending,  made  his  will  and  appropriated  $40,000  to 
carrying  on  the  suit  in  case  it  should  not  be  ended  before  his  death.  Upon 
some  one  present  expressing  surprise,  Judge  Berrien  remarked  that  Mr.  Gibbons 
was  a  very  able  lawyer  and  felt  great  pride  in  having  his  opinion  on  the  con- 
stitutional question  sustained.  Mr.  Spalding,  in  his  letter  from  which  1  have 
already  quoted,  mentions  that  he  was  a  law  student  of  Mr.  Gibbons,  and  speaki 
of  him  as  a  great  lawyer  and  a  man  of  most  determined  character.  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  more  familiarly  known  as  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  now  renowned 
among  the  men  of  New  York,  great  by  being  rich,  was  one  of  Mr.  Gibbons' 
steamboat  captains,  and  was  in  the  course  of  the  litigation  actually  brought 
before  Chancellor  Kent  once,  charged  with  a  contempt  in  disobeying  the  injunc- 
tion against  Gibbons'  boats. 

In  the  matter  of  Vanderbilt,  4  Johnson's  Chan.  R.  57.  Ogden  vs.  Gibbons, 
Ib.  150.  Gibboni  vs.  Ogden,  17  Johnson's  R.  488.  Gibbons  vs.  Ogden,  9- 
Wheaton's  R.  1. 


14  GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

privity  doing  wrong  things  and  going  criminal  lengths  for 
him  from  which  he  himself  would  have  revolted.  No  final 
action  was  reached  by  the  House  till  late  in  March  when 
a  decision  was  pronounced  setting  aside  both  the  contestants, 
declaring  a  vacancy  arid  calling  for  a  new  election,  at  which 
Mr.  Miltedge  was  chosen,  neither  Gen.  Wayne  or  Gen. 
Jackson  entering  the  lists  as  a  candidate,  and  so  both 
these  very  eminent  and  meritorious  men  were  sent  into  re- 
tirement. 

But  their  exile  was  short  and  more  than  compensated  by 
their  being  each  soon  called  to  a  more  exalted  and  import- 
ant sphere  of  public  employment.  Gen.  Wayne,  than 
whom  no  truer  son  of  Mars  ever  intensified  the  splendor  of  the 
American  arms,  being  solicited  by  Washington,  almost  im- 
mediately resumed  the  sword  and  went  at  once  to  that 
inveterate  theatre  of  Indian  hostilities  and  British  tamper- 
ings  on  the  Lake  frontier  where  our  armies  had  for  years  been 
so  unlucky,  and  there  in  August,  1794,  at  the  great  battle 
of  the  Miami  of  the  Lakes,  the  greatest  and  most  memo- 
rable in  all  our  annals  of  Indian  warfare,  repaired  the  dis- 
asters of  Harmar  and  St.  Clair  and  by  a  bloody  arbitra- 
ment opened  the  way  to  that  permanent  Indian  peace  in 
the  North- West  which  Washington  was,  as  we  have  seen  here- 
tofore,* successful,  by  peaceful,  diplomatic  means  in  bringing 
about  in  the  South  and  South- West.  This  signal  and  price- 
less triumph  of  Wayne's  generalship  shone  the  more 
brilliantly  under  the  dark  contrast  of  the  defeat  of  his  pred- 
ecessors and  it  may  be  regarded,  too,  somewhat  as  a  death- 
halo  settling  on  his  brow,  as  it  was  the  last  fighting  exploit 
of  a  life  that  was  not  to  last  much  longer.  For  he  survived 
but  two  years  more,  dying  in  the  service  and  at  his  post  on 
the  Indian  frontier,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  of 
the  United  States.  So  it  is  inscribed  on  the  monument 
erected  to  him  at  his  birthplace  in  Chester,  Pennsylvania, 
by  his  brethren  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

And  he  died  also  still  a   citizen    and  a  cherished  adopted 

*  In  the  article  on  the  Oconee  War,  Part  I. 


GENERALS   JACKSON   AND    WAYNE.  15 

son  of  Georgia.  For  in  passing  from  her  service  into  that  of 
the  United  States,  he  passed  not  from  her  embrace  nor  lost  his 
domicil,  at  once  trihute  of  gratitude  and  memorial  of  honor, 
on  her  soil.  He  thoroughly  won  her  devotion  when  as 
second  in  command  to  Gen.  Greene*  in  the  South,  he  had 
wrought  out  the  full  deliverance  of  the  State  from  the 
enemy  towards  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  And  in  tact  the 
successes  of  Greene  and  Wayne  in  the  extreme  South  had 
nearly  as  much  to  do  in  bringing  the  war  to  a  close  as  the- 
more  impressive  and  celebrated  triumph  of  Washington  over 
Cornwallis  in  Virginia.  As  a  consequence  of  these  great 
Southern  services,  Wayne  as  well  as  Greene  was  remem- 
bered .by  Georgia  when  peace  came,  and  she  acknowledged 
her  heavy  debt  to  him  by  bestowing  on  him  a  fine  estate 
near  Savannah  on  the  soil  he  had  rescued.  And  hence  like 
Gen.  Greene  he  was  led  to  make  Georgia  his  home.  The 
precise  time  of  his  coming  I  have  no  means  of  fixing,  but 
it  was  certainly  later  than  the  year  1787,  for  we  find  him 
in  the  last  months  of  that  year  still  a  citizen  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  serving  as  a  delegate  in  her  Convention  called  to 
ratify  the  new  Federal  Constitution.  That  he  should  have 
become  Gen.  Jackson's  opponent  for  Congress  was  un- 
doubtedly a  circumstance  of  a  nature  to  inspire  regret  at  the 
time  of  its  occurrence,  and  for  a  long  while  afterwards.  For 
it  was  just  one  of  those  contests  in  which  our  grief  over  the 
party  that  should  be  defeated  was  incapable  of  compensa- 
tion by  any  joy  that  we  could  feel  at  the  success  of  his  rival. 
That  grief  too  was  in  this  case  not  a  little  exasperated  and 
tinctured  with  resentment  on  account  of  the  reprehensible 
means  by  which  success  had  been  achieved.  But  here  again 
we  take  comfort,  for  that  General  Wayne  was  personally 
untouched  by  the  foul  arts  employed  in  his  behalf  and  stands 
clear  of  reproach  alike  from  the  public  and  his  own  con- 
science and  his  wronged  and  irritated  competitor.  And  now 
at  this  remote  day  looking  back  on  the  whole  affair  and  see- 
ing how  it  proved  eventually  harmless  alike  to  the  two 

*  See  his  speech  on  Mrs.  Greene's  Claims,  I.  Vol.     Benton's  Abr.  335-6. 


16  GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

Generals  and  the  country,  it  cannot  be  otherwise  than  that 
the  present  generation  of  the  people  of  Georgia,  filially  av- 
aricious of  every  ray  of  honor  that  can  be  counted  to  her 
brow,  must  feel  pride  at  such  a  spectacle  in  her  history  as 
Anthony  Wayne  attracted  by  her  generous  love  and  grati- 
tude to  become  one  of  her  citizens,  and  as  such  suing  for  her 
suffrages  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  and  actually  serving 
her  for  nearly  five  months  as  a  Representative  in  Congress, 
blameless  himself  in  being  there,  however  great  the  blame 
of  others  for  the  means  used  to  put  him  there. 

He  was  born  early  in  the  year  1745,  which  made  him  old- 
er than  Gen.  Jackson  by  more  than  a  dozen  years.  Like 
Jackson  he  was  of  good  ancestry,  of  superior  soldierly  stock 
particularly,  his  grandfather  having  fought  with  reputation 
as  the  commander  of  a  squadron  under  King  William  III 
at  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne,  in  1690,  and  his  father  having 
been  distinguished  as  well  in  expeditions  against  the  In- 
dians as  in  civil  affairs  in  Pennsylvania  in  the  Colonial 
times.  And  that  he  inherited  the  martial  temper  and 
bravery  and  the  strong  military  bent  of  his  race  was  mani- 
fest not  only  by  all  his  actions  and  career,  but  is  strik- 
ingly visible  in  his  very  looks  and  lineaments,  heroic  and 
spirited  in  the  highest  degree,  as  they  have  come  down  to 
us  on  canvass.  His  early  advantages  were  of  a  high  order 
and  were  so  well  improved  that  we  may  set  him  down  as 
having  had  an  education  ample  for  the  purposes  of  a  life  of 
activity  and  distinction  either  in  peace  or  war.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  these  advantages  aided  by  family  and  con- 
nexion, by  superior  endowments  of  mind  and  person,  by 
the  winning  power  of  a  promising,  aspiring  young  manhood 
and  by  his  noble  ardor  and  forwardness  from  the  very  first 
in  the  cause  of  the  uprising  colonies,  should  have  obtained 
for  him  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  a  position  which  the 
youthful  and  orphan  Jackson  with  all  his  merits  did  not 
succeed  in  reaching  till  near  its  end, — that  of  a  Colonelcy. 
In  this  grade,  however,  though  so  honorable  to  a  man  of 
only  thirty-one  years,  Wayne  did  not  linger  long.  Febru- 


GENERALS   JACKSON    AND   WAYXE.  17 

ary,  1777.  saw  him  a  Brigadier-General,  in  which  rank  it 
was  that  he  made  his  name  resplendent  and  immortal,  cover- 
ing it  with  a  Revolutionary  glory  second  only  to  what  was 
earned  by  Washington  himself  and  by  Gen.  Greene.  He 
became  a  Major-General  not  until  1792,  when  Washington 
sent  him,  as  we  have  just  seen,  at  the  head  of  the  army  to 
conquer  a  peace  and  which,  in  the  very  teeth  of  British  in- 
trusion and  instigation,  he  did  most  triumphantly  succeed  in 
conquering  not  from  one,  two  or  three  Indian  N.itious  only, 
but  from  all  the  North- Western  tribes  combined. 

Whilst  Gen.  Wayne  was  thus  reaping  for  himself  and 
his  country  an  overflowing  recompense  for  the  loss  of  his 
seat  in  the  Hou.se  of  Representatives,  Gen.  Jackson  also  soon 
saw  himself  made  more  than  whole  by  a  proud  amends.  The 
very  next  Legislature  after  his  exclusion  from  the  Lower 
House  conferred  upon  him  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  for  a  full  terra  commencing  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1793.  When  he  had  been  in  that  elevation  but  two  years, 
he  heeded  the  cry  of  the  people  calling  upon  him  to  disrobe 
himself  and  come  down  at  once  to  thetr  help  against  the  Ya- 
zoo  Fraud.  His  ready  obedience  gave  the  country  example 
of  a  resignation  the  noblest  on  record,  and  inculcated  a  les- 
son which  noble  natures  only  will  be  ever  quick  to  feel  and 
imbibe,  that  there  are  some  occasions  discernible  by  such 
natures  which  render  humility  a  sublime  practical  virtue, 
and  make  it  more  glorious  to  descend  with  a  magnanimous 
alacrity  to  the  lowlier  posts  of  public  service  than  to  cling 
with  tenacious  pride  and  self-love  to  the  higher  and  more 
shining  ones.  What  he  had  to  do  in  the  matter  for 
which  he  resigned  and  how  he  acquitted  himself  there- 
in, we  have  already  sufficiently  seen,  and  seen  also  how  after 
finishing  that  task,  he  otherwise  faithfully  and  ably  served 
Georgia  at  home  until  the  time  came  when  she  sent  him  once 
more  to  represent  her  in  the  National  Senate  contemporane- 
ously with  Mr.  Jefferson's  accession  to  the  Presidency.  Death 
found  him  in  that  position  and  at  his  post  on  the  19th  of 
March,  1806.  All  that  was  mortal  of  him  is  still  inhumed 


18  GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

at  the  Federal  capital,  and  the  citizen  of  Georgia  who  would 
look  upon  his  grave  and  the  simple  stone  that  marks  it  can 
to  this  day  only  do  so  by  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Congressional 
burying  ground  at  Washington  City.  By  no  monument, 
statue  or  even  portrait  has  Georgia  ever  done  homage  to  the 
man  who  from  his  dawn  of  youth  to  his  death  served  her 
with  so  much  devotion  and  brought  her  so  much  honor  and 
benefit,  and  whose  name  on  the  whole  sheds  more  lustre  on 
her  history  than  any  other  on  its  page — a  lustre  which  is 
destined  to  brighten  under  the  test  of  time  and  contemplation — 
a  man,  too,  who  loved  her  so  intensely  as  to  cause  him 
to  exclaim  that  if,  when  he  died,  his  heart  should  be  open- 
ed and  examined,  her  name  would  be  found  imprinted 
there.*  Yet  happily  his  likeness  remains  to  us  and  those 
who  yearn  to  know  what  manner  oi  man  he  was  to  the  eye, 
need  but  to  turn  to  the  American  Portrait  Gallery  in  order  I 
to  gaze  upon  the  noble,  intellectual,  spiritudle  countenance 
and  the  thinking,  high. -Ved,  cultured  looks  and  expression 
that  belonged  to  him. 

In  estimating  Gen.  Jackson  and  awarding  him  the  pre- 
eminence among  the  proud  names  which  are  the  especial 
growth  of  Georgia,  regard  should  be  had  to  him  as  a  whole. 
We  must  study  him  in  all  his  elements,  qualities  and  rela- 
tions, in  all  his  actions  and  situations.  In  some  particulars 
there  may  be  named  those  whom  he  cau;ui{  be  said  to  sur- 
pass or  even  equal.  But  then  there  is  to  be  seen  belonging 
to  him  a  signal  felicity  in  which  he  stands  alone, — a  felicity 
consisting  in  his  tout  ensemble  of  virtue*,  talents  and  merits, 
moral  and  intellectual,  martial  and  political,  heroic, — civic, 
chivalrous, — conferring  on  him  a  glory  composite  alike  of 
peace  and  war,  and  which  rises  to  the  beautiml  and  sublime 
in  both,  though  in  what  it  derives  from  peace  it  is  more  for- 
tunate even  than  in  what  it  owes  to  war,  in  that  its  peace- 
ful part  furnishes  an  impressive,  ever-speaking  example  and 
lesson  to  his  countrymen,  exhorting  to  purity,  rectitude  and 
true  wisdom  in  public  affairs,  and  urging  relentlessly  to  the 

•  White's  Statistics.  Title— Jackson  County. 


GENKRALS   JACKSON    AND   WAYNB.  19 

undoing,  crushing  and  preventing  of  all  public  turpitude 
and  profligacy.  Even  now  in  Georgia  that  example  and 
lesson  start  up  to  view  and  challenge  a  thoughtful  remem- 
brance, warning  our  people  that  if  they  would  protect  the 
coffers  of  the  State  from  legalized  robbery,  their  Legislators 
from  the  contaminating  approaches  of  a  bribery  and  corrup- 
tion outstripping  the  Yazoo  infamy  and  themselves  and 
their  posterity  from  an  iniquitous  taxation  at  once  disgrace- 
ful, oppressive  and  blighting, — a  taxation  to  carry  out,  sanc- 
tion and  reward  the  villanies  of  Bullock  and  his  crew,  they 
must  pursue  the  course  and  act  on  the  principles  of  Gen. 
Jackson  and  his  compatriots,  and  erect  an  insurmountable 
constitutional  barrier  against  the  payment  of  Bullock's 
fraudulent  bonds,  just  as  Jackson  and  his  co-workers  in  the 
convention  of  1798,  not  leaving  such  a  matter  as  another 
possible  Yazoo  enormity  within  the  Legislative  competency, 
erected  an  insuperable  constitutional  barrier  against  any 
more  sales  whatever  of  Indian  lands  by  the  Legislature  ex- 
cept to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  thereby 
madefurever  impossible  auy  more  Yazoo  frauds  in  Georgia. 
Gen.  Jackson  was  not  the  only  one  of  his  blood  and  name 
that  crossed  the  ocean  to  cast  his  lot  in  Georgia.  Long  af- 
ter him  and  when  he  had  attained  to  great  eminence,  subse- 
quently to  the  Revolutionary  war,  a  gifted  younger  brother 
came,  still  in  his  boyhood,  who  under  his  fraternal  care  and 
guidance  grew  up  to  be  a n  admirable,  meritorious,  accom- 
plished man,  useful  and  honored  in  his  day,  though  moving 
in  a  more  confined  and  unambitous  sphere  than  that  illus- 
trated by  the  General  himself.  All  who  are  familiar 
with  the  history  of  Franklin  College  during  its  slow  re- 
nfjiwance  and  hard  struggle  for  a  new  life  after  the  war  of 
1812,  will  know  at  once  that  Dr.  Henry  Jackson,  Professor 
of  Natural  Philosophy  in  that  Institution  fifty-odd  years 
ago,  is  the  person  to  whom  I  am  now  alluding.  Among 
the  felicities  incidental  to  my  Law  studentship  in  Athens, 
under  Judge  Clayton,  in  1821,  I  have  always  felt  it  a 
chief  one  that  by  means  of  it  I  came  to  see  and  know  Dr. 


20  GENERALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

,  Jackson  and  Dr.  Waddell,  the  then  President  of  the  Col- 
lege,— Dr.  Jackson  having,  however,  at  that  time  resigned 
his  professorship  and  gone  into  retirement,  though  still  con- 
tinuing to  reside  in  Athens.  But  quite  a  number  of  the 
brilliant  and  nohle-minded  young  men  who  had  pat  under 
his  instructions  were  still  in  the  college  or  otherwise  resi- 
dent in  Athens,  and  1  became  socially  almost  as  one  of 
themselves.  I  was  struck  by  the  manner  in  which  they  in- 
variably spoke  of  Dr.  Jackson.  Their  conversation  about 
him  literally  glowed  with  admiration.  They  exulted  at 
his  talents,  character  and  acquirements  and  his  faculty  of 
winning  the  interested  attention  of  the  young  and  inspiring 
tLeir  minds.  More  fortunate  than  most  of  the  learned  men 
whose  destiny  it  is  to  fill  the  chairs  of  colleges,  he  was  more 
than  a  mere  man  of  books  and  of  the  closet.  He  had  also  seen 
the  world  and  been  a  man  of  the  world  in  the  highest,  best  and 
most  enlarging  sense,  and  the  advantages  he  had  enjoyed  as 
such  had  been  to  him  as  seed  sown  on  good  ground.  It  was, 
according  to  the  published  records  of  the  College,  as  far  back 
as  1811,  that  he  was  first  called  to  the  Professorship.  But  he 
had  hardly  filled  it  a  twelvemonth  when  the  collapse  of  the 
college  caused  by  the  war,  opened  hia  way,  without  a  resig- 
nation, to  another  and  to  him  a  most  attractive  career.  In 
]813  he  was  invited  by  that  great  man,  William  II.  Craw- 
ford, then  just  appointed  Minister  to  France,  to  accompany 
him  in  the  capacity  of  Secretary  of  Legation.  He  remained 
in  Europe  several  years,  continuing  there  for  some  time  af- 
ter Mr.  Crawford's  return,  a  studious,  enlightened  observer 
of  the  mighty  and  tangled  mass  of  events  that  had  in  that 
quarter  of  the  globe  been  for  many  years  drifting  fearfully 
through  seas  of  hlood  to  a  conclusion  now  in  full  view — the 
universal  calm  of  a  despotism  joyful  after  the  long,  convul- 
sive storms  through  which  it  had  passed.  All  the  while 
too  he  was  profiting- diligently  by  the  splendid  opportunities 
that  lay  around  him  for  enlarged  scientific  acquisitions 
and  varied  mental  culture  and  enrichment.  The  result  was 
that  he  returned  home  a  man  of  rare  and  manifold  accom-  i 

i 


GENERALS   JACKSON    AND   WAYNE.  21 

plishments  and  was  justly  entitled  to  the  extraordinary  es- 
timation in  which  he  was  immediately  held. 

But  though  anxiously  expected,  as  I  remetnher  to  have 
read  in  a  Life  of  President  Finley  published  many  years 
ago  and  not  now  within  my  reach,  he  did  not  get  back  to 
his  Professorial  post  in  time  to  co-operate,  in  setting  the 
College  anew  on  its  feet,  with  that  greatly-beloved  and 
deeply-lamented  gentleman  ; — who  coming  from  New  Jer- 
sey a  stranger  among  us,  but  bringing  with  him  to  the 
headship  of  the  College  great  advantages  of  character  and 
prestige,  was  received  with  general  delight  and  was  success- 
ful by  his  opening  labors  and  exertions  in  making  a  most 
happy  impression  throughout  the  State.  Public  expecta- 
tion in  regard  to  him  rose  to  a  very  high  pitch,  8<»on  to  be 
dashed  however,  by  his  premature  death  in  the  fall  of  1817, 
filling  all  Georgia  with  grief  ere  the  first  year  of  his  Presi- 
dency had  expired.  His  successor  was  Dr.  Moses  Waddell, 
the  father  of  classical  education  in  our  up-country,  the  school- 
master of  Crawford, Calhoun,McDuffie,Pettigrew,Longstreet, 
and  many  others  whose  after  lives  and  distinction  reflected 
honor  on  his  name.  Dr.  Jackson  returned  soon  enough  to 
give  his  valuable  aid  to  this  grand,  solid,  beneficent  veteran 
in  finally  rehabilitating  the  college  and  launching  it  upon 
that  long  career  of  prosperity  which  it  maintains  to  this  day. 

Why,  when  he  saw  the  college  once  more  securely  under 
way  arid  free  from  danger  of  relapse  and  himself,  too,  at 
once  an  idol  and  an  ornament  there,  he  so  soon  withdrew 
from  his  connection  with  it  and  went  into  absolute  retire- 
ment, I  have  never  known  or  heard.  I  have  not,  however, 
been  able  to  help  divining  somewhat  of  the  cause :  — 
For  that  conversant  during  his  years  of  absence  with  the 
most  distinguished  social,  scientific  and  political  circles  of 
the  world  and  accustomed,  consequently,  to  high  and  stimu- 
lating intellectual  habits,  he  found  himself  averse  probably 
after  his  return,  to  drudging  in  a  perpetual  round  of  things  in 
science  and  philosophy  iamiliar  and  rudimen^al  to  him,  al- 
though ever  so  new,  fresh  and  interesting  to  his  successive 


22  GENERALS   JACKSON   AND   WAYNE. 

new  classes  of  pupils.  His  retirement  bordered  on  that 
of  a  recluse.  Rarely  seen  abroad,  a  glimpse  of  him  was 
sometimes  to  be  had  in  the  cool  of  a  summer  evening  prom- 
enading meditatively  the  grounds  within  his  own  curtilige, 
conscious  of  the  pure  clime  that  environed  him, — the  soft, 
aerial  summit  of  the  far  off  Currihee  just  not  sunken  from 
his  view  and  the  fair  earth  and  fairer  Heavens  serene  and 
sympathetic  above  and  around  him. 


Note  to  page  4,  from  WHITE'S  HISTOHICAL  SKETCH};-)  OP  GEORGIA,  pagt  634. 

Hon.  Thomas  Spalding  was  born  at  Fredenca.  on  the  Island  of  St.  Simon's, 
Glynn  county,  on  the  26th  March,  1774,  and  was  o!  Scottish  descent.  He  was 
the  son  of  James  Spalding.  Esq  .who  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  Colonel 
William  Mclntosh,  the  latter  being  the  same  person  who.  when  a  lad,  with  his 
younger  brother,  I.achlan.  (afterwards  General  Mcliilosh,  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,)  followed  their  father,  John  More  Mclntosh,  a  Highland  chieftain,  when, 
with  a  band  of  intrepid  Highlanders,  he  accompanied  General  Oglethorpe  to 
the  wilds  of  Georgia,  in  1736,  and  from  whom  sprang  many  of  that  name,  who 
periled  their  all  for  the  independence  of  their  country  during  our  Revolution- 
ary contest. 

Mr.  Spaltiing's  father  was  a  gentleman  of  line  abilities,  and  a  great  reader 
of  men  and  of  books,  the  advantages  of  which  he  seamed  to  have  early  and 
indelibly  impressed  upon  the  mind  of  his  son,  who  read  everything,  and  whose 
surprisingly  tenacious  memory,  retaining  all  that  he  read,  made  him  as  a  living 
book  and  depositary  of  literary  treasures,  especially  those  of  historic  intere&t. 

For  those  gentle  and  benevolent  traits  which  he  so  liberally  practiced  in 
mature  manhood,  he  was  indebted  to  the  influence  and  example  of  his  excellent 
and  venerated  mother,  of  whom  he  ever  spoke  with  the  most  filial  tenderness. 
He  was  their  only  child.  At  the  time  of  his  father's  decease  he  was  a  student 
of  law,  in  the  office  of  Thomas  Gibbons,  E^q.,  of  Savannah,  whose  practice 
was  extensive  and  profitable;  and  had  circumstances  at  this  period  permitted 
Mr.  Spalding  to  pursue  the  profession  of  his  choice,  he  doubtless  would  have 
been  eminent  in  it ;  but  his  fortune  being  ample,  and  requiring  his  personal 
attention,  he  declined  to  proceed  in  the  practice.  He  married  the  daughter  and 
only  child  of  Richard  Leake,  Esq..  which  union  added  much  to  his  already 
comfortable  estale. 

About,  this  time,  though  very  young,  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  and 
shortly  after,  with  his  family,  visited  Europe,  and  took  up  his  residence  in 
London,where  he  remained  two  years  a  regular  attendant  on,  and  observer  of,  the 
proceedings  of  Parliament,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  that  society  to  which  his 
pecuniary  means  arid  position  among  his  countrymen  abroad  entitled  him  in 
the  British  metropolis. 

The  ladv  whom  he  married  was  of  rare  accomplishments,  good  sense,  and  of 
singular  beauty  ;  yet  she  alone  seemed  unconscious  of  those  irresistible  fasci- 
nations which  secured  her  the  respect,  admiration  and  love  of  all.  They  had 


CllNKKALS    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE.  23 

born  to  them  many  children,  five  only  of  whom  survived  their  pairnts  and  are 
still  living.  Mr.  Spalding  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  oldest  son,  James, 
while  a  member  of  the  Legislature  Horn  Mclntosh  county,  during  it-,  ,.^>i..u 
in  18,21) — an  amiable  young  man.  of  superior  talent,  and  of  great  pronme. 
'I'he  Legislature  erected  a  mi.numert  to  uis  memory  m  the  capital  of  the  State. 

O«  his  return  from  F.ngiainl.  Mr.  SpaMing  was  elected  to  Congress,  »nd 
M-I\C(]  two  M-hsions.  and  was  formany  years  allerwards  a  prominent  and  lead- 
ing member  oi  the  Senate  of  bis  native  State,  and  until  he  retired  iroin  public 
lite,  to  superintend  his  extensive  private  artdirs,  and  to  enjoy  the  repose  and 
comforts  of  his  attractive  home,  surrounded  by  his  books,  and  friends,  and 
strangers  visiting;  our  country,  to  whom  he  was  ever  attentive. 

For  the  various  measures  which  he  advocated  during  a  long  political  cai -•»•,, 
through  anxious  and  perplexing  periods  of  our  history,  he  acted  always  trum  a 
conscientious  conviction  of  being  right,  and  for  the  interest  of  his  country. 
There  never  was  a  more  ardent  or  a  purer  patriot.  At  the  close  of  the  war  ->i 
i»\2,  in  compliance  with  a  commission  from  the  General  Government,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Bermuda,  and  negotiated  relative  to  the  slaves  and  other  property 
taken  from  the  South  by  the  British  forces. 

In  1826,  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  meet  the 
Commissioner  of  the  United  States,  Governor  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  to  deter- 
mine on  the  boundary  between  Georgia  and  the  Territory  of  Florida,  but  which 
was  nut  conclusively  settled,  the  Commissioners  disagreeing  as  to  what  should 
be  considered  the  true  source  of  the  St.  Marys — the  Georgia  Commissioner 
insisting  on  the  Southern  arid  most  distant  of  the  two  lakes  from  the  mouth  of 
the  river  discharging  its  waters  into  the  Atlantic,  which  lake  has  since  been 
called  after  him. 

The  limit  assigned  for  biographical  sketches  in  this  work  admits  of  nothing 
more  than  a  mere  outline  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Spalding.  He  was  a  fluent,  ener- 
getic speaker,  and  a  line  writer.  Ease  of  style  and  originality  characterize  the 
productions  of  his  pen.  He  was  the  author  of  the  Life  of  Oglethorpe,  and  of 
many  other  sketches;  and  furnished  much  useful  matter  for  various  agricultural 
journals  of  the  country,  was  among  the  earliest  cotton  planters  of  the  State 
and  introduced  the  cane,  its  successful  culture,  and  the  manufacture  of  sugar 
into  Georgia.  He  was  the  last  surviving  member  of  the  Convention  that 
revised  the  Constitution  of  the  State  in  1798. 

In  personal  appearance  he  was  agreeable,  of  middling  stature,  of  easy,  unas- 
suming manners,  courteous  and  affable.  His  hospitality  was  boundless,  and 
accessible  to  all ;  and  it  may  be  truly  and  emphatically  said  of  him,  that  he 
was  the  friend  of  the  distressed.  Kind  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  his  slaved,  of 
whom  he  had  a  large  number,  felt  neither  irksome  toil  or  disquiet  under  his 
mild  and  indulgent  government. 

He  felt  intensely  interested  in  the  Compromise  measures  of  Congress,  and, 
though  in  delicate  health,  declared  his  wish  to  go  as  a  delegate  to  the  Conven- 
tion in  Milledgeville,  even  ifhe  should  die  in  the  effort.  He  reached  that  city 
in  a  very  feeble  state,  was  elected  President  of  the  Convention,  and  commenced 
his  duties  by  a  neat  and  appropriate  address,  remarking  in  the  conclusion,  that 


24  ^ENERAI^    JACKSON    AND    WAYNE. 

•as  it  would  be  the  last,  so  it  would  also  be  a  graceful  termination  of  his  public, 
labors.'  After  the  adjournment,  he  passed  on  homeward  through  Savannah, 
greatly  debilitated,  and  reached  his  son's  residence,  near  Darien,  where  he  ex- 
pired in  the  midst  of  his  children,  calmly  relying  on  his  God  for  a  happy  futu- 
rity, January  -1th  185L.  in  the  77th  year  of  his  age,  and  in  sight  of  that  islai.d 
home  in  which  it  is  hoped  no  spoiler  will  ever  be  suffered  to  trespass,  but  long 
to  remain  a  sacred  memorial  of  his  ta*te  for  the  sublime  beauties  of  nature 
His  residence  was  a  massive  mansion,  of  rather  unique  stv]»».  in  the  midst  of  a 
primeval  forest  of  lofty,  out-branching  oaks,  of  many  centuries,  arrayed  in  the 
soft  and  gracefully-flowing  drapery  of  the  Southern  moss,  waving  in  noiseless 
unison  with  the -ceaseless  surges  of  the  ocean,  which  break  upon  the  strand  of 
this  beautiful  aud  enchanting  spot. 


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